Does taking a pill make the pain in your arms and legs go away? That would be great, but unfortunately, that is not always the case. On the other hand, it is often not advisable to simply take a pill when you are in pain.
Professor Winfried Meissner is the president of the German Pain Society. “Mild pain should not be treated with painkillers in the first instance,” he says. He adds that in the case of more severe acute or chronic pain, painkillers are often one of several elements of a successful therapy.
According to Meissner, pain treatments should never be thought of in terms of “either/or.” “We do not see non-drug procedures as an alternative, but rather as a complement, that is, as a complementary therapy for treating pain,” he explains.
Choosing the right treatments
Just like with medication, it is also important to choose the right treatment. “As well as effective treatments, there is also a lot of nonsense,” says Meissner, who heads the pain therapy department at the university clinic in Jena, Germany.
In addition, “there are often significant deficits and failed treatments in pain management,” says Jan-Henrich Stork, medical director of a pain center at Tabea Hospital in Hamburg.
“You should start pain therapy with your family doctor, orthopedist, or clinician first,” says Stork. If this does not bring relief, you should start specialized outpatient therapy with a pain specialist, he says.
Body and mind must be active
According to Winfried Meissner, elements of successful pain therapy include physical and spiritual activities such as swimming, yoga, and qigong.
“The key is the combination,” says Meissner. That is why she believes it is best to seek advice, as not all of these alternatives are suitable for all types of pain. She also points out that, as with medications, in these cases, there can also be an overdose or, on the contrary, an underdose.
Massages are among the more “passive” procedures. “In the short term, they can help, but in the long term they can lead to inactivity,” says Meissner. “That is why active procedures are often more effective,” she says.
Relaxation techniques, according to experts, are a “wonderful opportunity” to modify the perception of pain regardless of where the patient is and the specialist treating them.
In his opinion, physiotherapy, psychotherapy, and occupational therapy are particularly important parts of chronic pain treatment.
“The important thing is that these procedures are well combined and not carried out in parallel, without coordination,” Meissner stresses. In the case of chronic pain, he says that the best approach is to undertake multimodal pain therapy.
Multimodal pain therapy
In these cases, the people who perform the treatments must be coordinated. According to the definition, multimodal therapy is a chronic pain treatment that includes at least two specialties.
Stork explains the idea behind her therapeutic concept: “We do not approach pain from a single dimension, as a mere illness, but rather we analyze it about its individual physical, spiritual and social consequences as well as its effects on everyday life,” she says.
Therefore, treatment consists of medical therapy as well as psychological and psychotherapeutic methods, physiotherapy, and, above all, instruction on the subject of pain.
He explains that injuries and operations the patient has had in the past are part of the therapy, as well as genetic predispositions and certain attitudes such as the patient’s thought patterns.
But all pain therapies have one thing in common: “Patients have to be willing to get moving,” Stork says. That means they have to be willing to actively improve their chronic pain.