In this Article

• Introduction to pain management
• How is pain treatment guided?
• What are the basic types of pain?
• Nociceptive pain
• Neuropathic pain
• What are other causes of pain
• Patient Discussions: Pain Management - Type of Pain and Effective Treatments
• Pain Management Glossary
• Pain Management Index

What are types of neuropathic pain?

Neuropathic pain includes:

• Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), also called reflex sympathetic dystrophy;
  
  
• Sympathetically maintained pain;
  
  
• Fibromyalgia;
  
  
• Interstitial cystitis; and
  
  
• Irritable bowel syndrome.

Treatment of neuropathic pain

The various neuropathic pains can be difficult to treat. However, with careful diagnosis and often a combination of methods of treatments, there is an excellent chance of improving the pain and return of function.

Medications are a mainstay of treatment of neuropathic pain. In general, they work by influencing how pain information is handled by the body. Much pain information is filtered out by the central nervous system, usually at the level of the spinal cord, so that you never need to deal with that information. For example, if you are sitting in a chair, your peripheral nerves would correctly send the response to the pressure between your body and the chair to your nervous system. But, because that information serves no usual purpose, it is filtered out in the spinal cord. Many medications to treat neuropathic pain operate on this filtering process. Amongst the types of medications are antidepressants, influencing the amount of serotonin or norepinephrine and antiseizure medications, influencing the amount of various neurotransmitters, such as GABA and glycine.

One of the most powerful tools in treating neuropathic pain is the spinal cord stimulator, which delivers tiny amounts of electrical energy directly onto the spine. The effect of this stimulation of the spinal cord is to allow the spinal cord to function normally even during a painful condition. It works by interrupting inappropriate pain information being sent up to the brain.

Pain Management - Type of Pain and Effective Treatments

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