Why Pain Medicine Doctors Should Utilize Individual Treatment Plans
Seeing your GP for a routine ailment would probably result in your doctor following a standard protocol that includes some general recommendations along with the prescription. A dozen patients seeing the doctor for the exact same condition are likely to receive the exact same treatment. That is the nature of general medicine. Things are different in pain medicine.
Pain medicine is a medical specialty that focuses on identifying pain’s root causes, treating those causes when possible, and assisting with long term pain management when necessary. The very nature of pain medicine makes utilizing a one-size-fits-all approach both impractical and ineffective.
Individualized Treatment Plans Are Better
Lone Star Pain Medicine is a Weatherford, TX clinic that specializes in treating and managing pain. They explain on their website their commitment to individualized treatment plans designed to restore function so that patients can regain quality of life.
I don’t know if every pain medicine doctor puts such a great emphasis on individual treatment plans. But if they all do not, they all should. My own experience with chronic illness is all the proof I need to be confident about taking such a position.
Patients Have Unique Needs
My chronic condition is not painful. Nonetheless, treating it is as difficult as treating chronic pain. The one thing I have learned over 15 years of dealing with countless medical providers is that I am a unique person with unique needs. The way my particular condition impacts my daily life can be quite different from how the same condition impacts another patient. No two patients with my condition are exactly alike.
The same applies to chronic pain. Pain is not a one-size-fits-all condition. It is not even a single symptom that is easily defined by a known cause. Take fibromyalgia. When the condition was first proposed, the medical community was highly skeptical because no cause had been found to explain symptoms.
Even today, now that fibromyalgia is recognized as legitimate, science still isn’t sure of its underlying cause. Therefore, treating it is not an exact science. The thing is that fibromyalgia is just one condition associated with chronic pain. There are literally hundreds of other conditions for which chronic pain is a symptom.
Patients Respond Differently
In addition to having unique needs, patients also respond differently to the treatments they are offered. For instance, some chronic pain patients respond extremely well to physical therapy and massage. Others do not. Some patients respond well to OTC pain relievers while others rely on more potent drugs.
It is a mistake for a pain medicine doctor to assume that a single, static treatment is applicable to every patient whose pain is being caused by a known condition. Such a mistake is compounded when a patient is experiencing nonspecific pain.
Lifestyle Choices Play a Role
Muddying the waters even further is the reality that lifestyle choices play a role in a patient’s pain experience. Consider a chronic pain patient who is largely sedentary. Logic dictates that a patient would likely feel better if he exercised regularly. But in the absence of a willingness to do so, his doctor needs to find some other way to manage his pain.
Everything from exercise to diet to stress can impact the pain experience. Add in dozens of other potential variables and it becomes clear that the pain experience is not uniform among patients. If for no other reason, this is why pain medicine doctors should utilize individual treatment plans for every patient. Treating all patients as the same will not help them all equally. Doing so will be a disservice to most.