Physical Therapy for Pain: National Pain Awareness Month

National Pain Awareness Month happens every September to bring awareness for issues related to pain and pain management; along with all of the benefits of physical therapy for pain and its management.

The first Pain Awareness Month was in 2001, when the ACPA led a coalition of groups to establish September as Pain Awareness Month. ACPA established Partners for Understanding Pain and 80 organizations, both health care professionals and consumer groups, including the NAACP supported the effort. With bringing awareness to this issue we want to address the solution for it as well, which is physical therapy for pain and pain management and how effective it is for individuals.

What is the goal of National Pain Awareness Month?

To raise awareness about pain and its management, plain and simple. According to John Hopkins, nearly 100 million Americans suffer with some form of chronic pain, and many deal with it in their day-to-day lives - from lower back pain to chronic arthritis.

The real problem:

The chronic pain that many suffer from leads to problems besides the obvious pain. Some have resorted to medications which might get abused, and others suffer in silence. These and other reasons are why understanding pain and its management is so vital in our society.

Patients with chronic pain, what can you do:

Learning and education are the keys to help people suffering from chronic pain. Visiting your physician and learning more about your condition with help immensely.

Physical Therapy for Pain:

Using physical therapy for pain management is a great solution. This allows one-on-one interaction with a trained professional who can devise a treatment plan according to patients' needs.

Only Pros:

There are so many benefits to physical therapy for pain relief! Most patients want more than to just mask the pain; they want a real solution. Not only that, but they want results that will last longer than a course of medication. A PT will identify the source of the problem and provide different treatments along with a custom plan. This is the kind of attention that a regular doctor doesn't often have the time to give. But, a physical therapist can ask questions and talk about pain issues.

Here are a few examples of chronic pain where physical therapy can help:

• Osteoarthritis
• Fibromyalgia
• Chronic Headaches
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Neuropathic pain
• Lower back pain
  
  

Most people who suffer from chronic pain just want to be heard and understood. This type of pain is not something you see on the surface and so, most of the time, it is not addressed. Patients want to move forward and be comfortable in their own skin again; this is where physical therapy comes in and helps alleviate the problem. "Chronic pain is, in and of itself, a chronic illness. Chronic pain is its own disease, and it can be very isolating. It can lead to depression, and in many cases, suicide." - Dr Rosenblatt In the end, physical therapy might not seem like the quickest way to ease pain since it’s not immediate. But in the long run, it is the most effective way to improve pain and help with pain management. PTs, learning and education in pain management isn’t that far out of your reach!

Check out these informative courses: - Rehabilitation Pharmacology: Pain, Arthritis, Bone Mineralization, and Endocrine References:

1. https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/stories/september_pain_awareness_month.html