A number of my patients who have been struggling with pain management for more than a year may report that although their pain began in one specific spot, over time, it began to spread. Sometimes, over time, neck pain would involve the lower back pain as well. Many of these patients were thought to possibly have fibromyalgia syndrome and were given anticonvulsant or serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs). The spread of pain may be from central sensitization (CS) (http://bit.ly/1aVsdg0, http://bit.ly/1bHgSDU). With some of these patients when the worst pain was treated and resolved from one area it could appear in another and muscles not recognized on the initial examination would now be found to be causing discomfort. This could be a function of diffuse noxious inhibitory control (DNIC) http://bit.ly/14Ac4GL,
These confounding problems appear to represent two opposing and confusing phenomenon: CS and DNIC [currently referred to as conditioned pain modulation (CPM)] (http://bit.ly/1aVuish). Do these issues enter into your evaluation and treatment protocols?
Tagged with: back pain • neck pain
Filed under: back pain posts • pain management
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