For most physicians and patients, the primary method of pain control is the use of analgesic medication. Unfortunately, some people, particularly those with unremitting chronic pain, go from one pain medication to another with little relief. Others refuse to use any drug over long periods for fear of addiction. When conventional treatments don’t work, “alternative” therapies can offer relief for some people.
Alternative treatments
Pain is a very individual matter, involving complex physical and psychological variables. Your backache may be relieved by massage or acupuncture, while someone else’s may not be helped by dozens of different kinds of treatment. No therapy will work for all people all types of pain, or even for all people with the same complaint or apparent underlying condition. Thus trial and error is usually unavoidable.
It’s safest to think of alternative treatments as adjunct therapy. Don’t give up your regular medical care. Even if pain-relieving drugs have failed you, don’t stop taking other prescription drugs that you may need. Talk to your regular physician about the new approaches you’re considering and make sure he continues to keep an eye on your condition. There’s little potential harm in an alternative treatment for pain relief unless it keeps you from getting a correct diagnosis of a treatable or curable condition.
The effectiveness of alternative therapies has been difficult to prove in controlled studies; evidence about them is frequently based on anecdotes from people who have gotten relief. Each therapy has its advocates and critics, among patients, physicians and researchers. The body’s own painkillers In recent years, scientists have discovered that just as body chemistry creates pain, it may also supply a mechanism to control it. They theorize that some methods of pain control, such as acupuncture and electrical nerve stimulation, reduce pain by activating the body’s own pain relief system. Opiate like substances (such as endorphins and enkephalins) produced in the spinal cord and brain appear to operate in the same manner is opiate drugs. Certain sufferers of chronic pain, in fat, may have lower than normal levels of these natural pain relievers. … Next Week “Placebo Effect”
Article extracted from this publication >> August 4, 1989
