(Newswire.net via Emailwire.com -- February 22, 2013) Las Vegas, NV -- Pain management physicians take care of people that are in acute or chronic pain.
In a recent interview, Dr. Alain Coppel, MD, chairman of the Nevada Comprehensive Pain Center in Las Vegas, explained the difference between them this way:
“Acute pain may be anything from post-surgical pain to an acute injury on a soccer field, at work or with a motor vehicle accident. Chronic pain is defined as pain that lasts several months or more. It may crop up as persistent pain after an injury heals, or arise as a debilitating symptom of long-term diseases like arthritis, diabetes or cancer”.
Often, Dr. Coppel said, primary care physicians can prescribe medications but when it gets to a certain dose or a certain frequency they may leave it up to pain management physicians to actually incorporate the medication management. The reason for this is that high dose medication management or frequent medication management can lead to significant side effects as well as to the potential for addiction and dependence on the medications. "We as pain management physicians are better trained to be able to manage the medications and to be able to look for somebody with risk factors or the red flags that may be associated with a dependency on the medications or an addiction to the medications".
According to statistics there are 116 million U.S. chronic pain sufferers.
Pain specialists have traditionally treated symptoms as individual units that are not talking to each other.
"We look at the whole person because there are a lot of the things that sometimes can prevent someone from getting better. Those things could be poor muscle strength posture, for instance smoking, uncontrolled diabetes that can lead to less than optimal outcomes in terms of pain management. So we just don't address the specific thing that may be causing the pain but other factors that may be contributing to the sensation of pain and the sensation of suffering as well", said Dr. Coppell.
He continued saying: "I think the comprehensive approach comes from being trained at a large University like Johns Hopkins. At Johns Hopkins we incorporated psychological care, surgical care, medication management with pharmacists, social workers and things like that and we noticed that the best outcomes in every patient were when this whole comprehensive model was actually utilized".
Dr. Coppel also noted that physical therapy can help pain because oftentimes the pain itself can lead to range of motion abnormalities and that can also translate into more pain and more suffering and more limitations in the things that patients may want to be able to do. "By incorporating physical therapy we are able to bring in some of the range of motion we are able to re-program the spinal cord we are also able to program the muscles to be able to function better", said Dr. Coppel.
You can see the full interview segments here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/nvcpc/videos?view=0
You can visit Dr. Coppel on the web at:
Nevada Comprehensive Pain Center has the following Pain management clinics in Las Vegas, NV
Las Vegas
NV
89102
Suite 120 Henderson
NV
89074
Suite 120 Las Vegas
NV
89125
Fax (702) 946-1343
Media melissa@nvcpc.com
Article posted by Sergio Chavez
Source: EmailWire.Com
