If you suffer from chronic pain, you may have discovered that it can affect every aspect of your life: how you sleep, your moods, stress on your relationships, and even your ability to enjoy life in general. At Instituto Clavel, we know how profoundly it can affect our patients, and we use a comprehensive approach to treatment that focuses on the specific individual, based on scientific evidence.
What is chronic pain?
Chronic pain is defined as pain that lasts for more than three months, or lasts longer than would be expected for healing. It can be either:
- Primary pain: when the pain itself is the condition.
- Secondary pain: when the pain is related to another pathology, such as arthritis, nerve injury, or problems in the spine.
We now know that chronic pain is more than just a physical symptom; emotional, social, and behavioral factors are also involved. Because of this, treatment of chronic pain must be multimodal, addressing biological, psychological, and social aspects through a combination of medical, physical, and psychological therapies.
Diagnosis and treatment
Our approach to treatment beings with a thorough study of each patient. This includes gathering a detailed medical history, a functional assessment, and finding out how the condition is affecting the patient’s daily life. With this information, we design an individualized treatment plan, with realistic and measurable functional goals, such as walking 15 minutes several times a week. We apply treatments such as:
A. Multimodal therapy: the patient is the protagonist
The success of the treatment depends largely on the active involvement of the patient while we accompany them throughout the process, combining various strategies:
- Specialized exercise and physical therapy: Controlled, gradual movement is essential for improving functions and reducing pain. In our physical therapy center, we help you with therapeutic exercise and targeted physical therapy.
- Psychological support and coping techniques: chronic pain can affect your state of mind, and cause anxiety, depression, or insomnia. For this reason, we recommend psychological therapies such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), or pain reprocessing therapies. These can improve the way you relate to your pain, and help you recover quality of life.
- Treatment with medications: according to the type of pain, and explaining the potential benefits and risks of the medication. For example:
- Neuropathic pain: anticonvulsants and some antidepressants.
- Nociceptive pain: anti-inflammatories or non-opioid pain relievers.
- Opioids: only in selected cases and under strict medical control.
- Complementary medications: muscle relaxants or topical medications.
B. Neuromodulation and interventional pain procedures
When conventional treatments are not successful in resolving the patient’s pain, we may consider other options, such as advanced neuromodulation and interventional techniques. These therapies act directly on the nervous system to reduce the transmission of pain signals.
- Invasive neuromodulation: This includes procedures such as spinal cord stimulation (SCS) or dorsal root ganglion stimulation (DRG). These procedures may be indicated in cases such as of severe neuropathic pain or failed back surgery syndrome, among others. The most modern systems for application of these treatments are enhanced with artificial intelligence, improving efficiency and patient autonomy.
- Non-invasive neuromodulation: Techniques such as TENS, rTMS or tDCS apply electrical or magnetic stimuli to the skin or brain, as a means for relieving pain without the need for surgery. They are safe options, especially useful in fibromyalgia, central neuropathic pain, or migraines.
- Interventional treatments: Nerve blocks, trigger point injections, or radiofrequency are minimally invasive procedures. They are performed in a personalized and cautious manner, in a controlled environment with the patient under sedation.
Regenerative therapies: the medicine of the future
Regenerative therapies offer a promising treatment alternative for chronic musculoskeletal and neuropathic pain. Using stem cells, growth factors, and platelet-rich plasma or exosomes, these treatments seek to reduce inflammation, and promote regeneration and repair of damaged tissues.
At our centers in Madrid and Barcelona, our goal is not just to relieve pain, but to help our patients recover functionality, and to help them have a better quality of life. We combine advanced medical technology with a personalized, humane, and multidisciplinary approach, accompanying our patients each step of the way on their path to well-being. A comprehensive approach to a life with less pain.
Dr. Iliana vega
Anesthesiologist and pain management specialist
Categories: Back pain, Cervical pain, Lumbar pain, Pain Management