Treating chronic pain can be challenging. Often the reason for the pain is not clear, and it may take several types or combinations of treatments before you find relief. When treatment is started, some people may have increased pain because their chronic pain has caused them to be inactive and they have lost strength and flexibility. However, over time treatment should decrease the pain and increase your ability to function. You may learn new ways of doing ordinary tasks to reduce pain. Often chronic pain cannot be cured, but it can be managed well enough to significantly improve the quality of your life.

Be sure to seek treatment if your pain lasts longer than 2 to 3 months. Early treatment may prevent the pain from getting worse.

Some chronic pain is caused by specific conditions that can be treated. For example, there are treatments for headaches, arthritis, neck pain, low back pain, or depression.

Initial treatment

The goals of treatment are to reduce chronic pain and increase your ability to function. This includes improving your sleep and coping skills and reducing stress so you can return to your regular activities. Initial treatment depends on what kind of pain you have and how severe it is, as well as whether your pain is related to an illness, injury, or an unknown cause. Often, the best approach is a combination of therapies.

You may be able to control your pain at home by:

• Getting appropriate daily exercise, such as walking or swimming.
• Eating a balanced diet. This includes getting enough vitamins such as vitamin B and vitamin D. Talk to your doctor or a registered dietitian about a healthy diet for you.
• Getting enough sleep.
• Using pain relievers-such as acetaminophen or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as ibuprofen (Advil, for example) or aspirin. Always take these medicines exactly as prescribed or according to the label. Do not take a nonprescription NSAID for longer than 10 days without talking to your doctor.
• Using complementary therapies, such as acupuncture or meditation.

A licensed mental health counselor, psychologist, or psychiatrist can help with your emotional well-being while you are dealing with chronic pain. It is common to respond to chronic pain with feelings of frustration, depression, anxiety, fear, and even anger. These feelings can make it tough to conquer chronic pain, especially if you use alcohol or drugs to manage your symptoms. Pain affects both your physical and emotional well-being. Untreated depression or anxiety can make your pain worse. A counselor may use treatments such as cognitive-behavioral therapy to help you cope with your pain.¹

If the above treatments do not relieve or reduce your pain, your health professional may:

• Treat existing health problems that may contribute to the pain.
• Recommend that you reduce stress with relaxation techniques, such as guided imagery, and exercise, such as yoga.
• Prescribe physical therapy to relieve pain and improve movement and function.
• Prescribe medicines, such as tricyclic antidepressants, anticonvulsants, or opioid analgesics. At first, you may be given medicines that cause the fewest side effects.
• Increase the strength of your medicines, change medicines, or add new ones as needed.
• Prescribe electrical stimulation therapies, such as transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS), to alter pain signals as they travel to the brain. This treatment has had mixed results and may not work for everyone.

Ongoing treatment