Central California Alliance for Health | Living Healthy | June 2019

HEALTHY 6 How to safely and effectively manage acute and chronic pain What’s the difference between acute and chronic pain? Isn’t all pain the same? Believe it or not, they are quite different! Acute pain usually occurs suddenly and has a known cause like an injury, surgery or infection. You may have experienced acute pain, for example, from a wisdom tooth extraction, an appendix removal or a broken arm. Acute pain goes away as your body heals. Chronic pain, on the other hand, can last weeks or months—past the normal time of healing. Successful pain management doesn’t always mean taking away your pain completely. Good pain management allows your body and mind to heal. Prescription medicine Prescription opioid medicine (like hydrocodone, oxycodone, codeine and morphine) is one of the many options for treating severe acute pain. Doctors usually prescribe them after a surgery or injury or for certain health problems. While these medicines can reduce pain for a short time, they come with serious risks. You might get addicted to the medicines or die from an overdose when you take them for a long time, at high doses or with other strong medicines. There is very little evidence that prescription opioid medicines effectively manage chronic pain. These medicines usually do not take away all of the pain. In the beginning, they may help with pain, but over time, they may also make pain worse and make you more sensitive to pain. Your mental and physical condition can get worse if you take them for a long time as well. How these medicines affect you depends on your unique situation. Other options for pain relief The good news is that there are many ways to relieve your pain that do not involve prescription opioid medicines. These treatments may actually work better and have fewer risks and side effects. The Alliance covers many other options that can help with pain: ❱  ❱ Other over-the-counter pain relievers, such as acetaminophen (Tylenol), ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin) or naproxen ❱  ❱ Physical therapy and exercise … ❱  ❱ Cold or heat pads ❱  ❱ Lidocaine® or Icy-Hot patches ❱  ❱ Acupuncture or chiropractic care ❱  ❱ Working with a counselor to help learn ways to change the triggers of pain and stress… ❱  ❱ Learning relaxation or meditation techniques ❱  ❱ Other non-opioid medicines that are also used for depression or seizures, which can help By adding other pain control options to your daily routine, you may be able to take fewer doses of medications to relieve pain. Ask your doctor which ones would be best for you to keep you safe and healthy.