Pain Treatment Options

At the Beacon Pain Management Centers, our expert team develops treatment plans customized to your condition, degree of pain, needs and personal objectives. Your treatment may include a combination of therapies, including:

• Medical management
• Physical therapy
• Psychological therapy

Medical Management

Medical management may include medications, injections, surgical implants or other technologies. Medications may include anti-inflammatory pain relievers, pain killers or other drugs that work in combination to relieve pain. Long-term narcotic therapy also may be considered in combination with a psychological consultation.

Our care team may recommend one or more therapies. The following are just a few of the more common medical management treatments we offer:

Injections

Injections are performed for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. Our experts use diagnostic injections to help identify the origins of your pain and further refine treatment recommendations. We use therapeutic injections to treat specific types of acute and chronic pain. Injections may be given in the joint, muscle, spine and bursa (fluid-filled sac). They may include local anesthetics (numbing agents), steroids (to reduce inflammation) and muscle relaxants.

Nerve blocks

Nerve blocks relieve pain by interrupting how pain signals are sent to your brain, usually through anesthetic injections into or around the affected nerve or into the spine. Nerve blocks can be used to diagnose sources of pain or to predict the outcome of other treatments, such as surgery.

Pain pumps/epidural catheters

Also known as intrathecal drug delivery, pain pumps deliver medication directly to your spinal cord. The small pain pump is surgically placed under the skin of your abdomen where it then delivers medication through a catheter (slender tube) to the area around your spinal cord.

Radio frequency ablation

Radio frequency ablation (destruction) uses radio waves to heat small areas of nerve tissue to decrease pain signals from the area.

Spinal cord stimulation

Spinal cord stimulation delivers low-level electrical signals, through an implanted device, to the spinal cord or to specific nerves to block pain signals from reaching the brain. The signals counter-stimulate nerves and change the pain into a tolerable “tingle.”

Physical Therapy

Physical therapy can help treat many types of pain through rehabilitation of a body part or muscle group. Our physical therapists help you rehabilitate certain muscle groups as pain becomes better controlled. This facilitates your ability to return to work and/or to more comfortably assume daily activities.

Psychological Therapy

Chronic pain can have profound psychological effects, including feelings of hopelessness, anger, sadness and even despair. These feelings can interfere with your ability to perform your job or your normal daily activities.

Psychological therapy and techniques can help reduce your pain as well as help you cope with the effects of pain on you and those around you. Our counselors may use biofeedback, relaxation therapy and hypnosis to help you manage and control your pain. We also teach cognitive and coping strategies and provide counseling for depression and anxiety.