What is Pain?
Pain is a natural response to harmful stimuli that helps the body protect and heal itself. It is a complex experience having both physical as well as psychological aspects.
Pain management is mainly focused on alleviating your pain and enabling you to carry out day to day activities. Pain can be treated in a variety of ways and depends on the type and severity of pain being experienced.
Narcotics Policy
The providers at Seacoast Orthopedics understand that many orthopedic conditions, specifically fractures and surgical procedures, may require narcotic pain medication to help control your pain. Narcotic medications have many side effects, the most serious being that they can be very addictive. Other side effects include, but are not limited to, confusion, nausea and vomiting, constipation, fatigue, unsteadiness and difficulty with urination. Excessive doses of Tylenol, which is in many pain medications, may also cause liver damage. The physicians therefore are very careful in prescribing these medications. Please read the specific policy points below.
- All medications should be taken as instructed by your doctor.
- If all the prescribed medication is taken prior to the refill date, then the refill request will be denied.
- New prescriptions will not be written for lost or stolen prescriptions.
- Narcotic prescriptions are not written for undiagnosed pain.
- Chronic pain or pain beyond that which is normally expected for a specific condition that continues to require narcotic medication will be referred to a pain management clinic.
- To ensure that you have the medications when you need them please call the office before 3 PM . You must allow 24 hours for medication prescriptions to be sent to your pharmacy.
- No prescriptions will be filled at night or on weekends.
Opioids and Their Side Effects
Opioids or narcotic medications are used in pain management when pain is severe and other treatments such as analgesic medications or NSAIDs do not offer symptomatic relief or have intolerable side effects, or when surgery is delayed or contraindicated. Opioid medications act by binding to the opioid receptors in the nervous system to prevent the sensation of pain. Common opioids include morphine, codeine, fentanyl and oxycodone.
Though opioids offer good pain relief they are known to cause side effects such as dry mouth, nausea, vomiting, dizziness and constipation. Overdose may lead to respiratory depression. Once pain is under control, the dose needs to be gradually reduced or it can cause withdrawal effects. Opioids are also known to cause addiction.
Because of possible toxicity to the body, physical dependence, the loss of efficacy due to developmental tolerance and psychological dependence or addiction, opioid medical care or narcotic administration is widely rejected in the treatment of chronic pain. Opioids may be prescribed for patients with severe, chronic pain who experience high levels of comfort while not developing toxicity to the body or having any indication of psychological dependence or addiction. Opioid therapy should be considered as the last treatment option in cases of unrelieved pain despite alternative medications (such as the use of non-opioid drugs). Patients should be informed regarding the side effects of opioids and suggested to follow-up with their doctor regularly. Monthly appointments should be scheduled to assess the dose of the drug until the patient experiences partial or complete relief from pain.
Managing Your Pain
Pain Management Centers of New England provides interventional and medical treatment services to those suffering with pain in the communities of the North Shore of Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire. Our focus is to offer a wide array of treatment options for several pain diagnoses, utilizing the skills of fellowship trained and board-certified pain specialist physicians and the most advanced technologies available, resulting in cost-effective, high-quality treatment.
The Center currently provides pain management services that include patient consultation; development of an individualized treatment plan; interventional pain procedures; and pharmacologic review and plan, all in collaboration with the patient and referring provider.”
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