Any pain that persists longer than three months may be diagnosed as chronic. It happens virtually anywhere in the body and it may be difficult to treat. Chronic pain is also unpredictable and it may last the rest of your life.
Nearly 21% of the American adult population suffered from pain lasting longer than three months in 2021. Over 17 million people had high-impact chronic pain that same year, about 6.9%. Chronic pain is a common problem, and for some people it seriously interferes with their quality of life.
The three-month threshold means that some slow-healing conditions qualify as chronic pain cases while healing continues to progress. These are the lucky few who see the effects of their pain vanish. Chronic pain is often a life-long condition.
When it comes to managing the symptoms of chronic pain, visit us at Keta Medical Center to learn how low-dose ketamine infusions offer relief for many patients who have difficulty with other forms of pain management. We’re chronic pain specialists, ready to help you develop an effective anti-pain plan.
Understanding chronic pain
Apart from slow-healing chronic pain that eventually fades, chronic pain can last months, years, or forever. Often, incurable degenerative conditions like arthritis cause pain as a result of the damage they create. Since there’s no way to fully reverse this damage, you may be stuck with pain symptoms until such time as joint replacement surgery becomes necessary.
Other times, you might have an injury that heals, but the nerves that report pain continue to do so even after there’s no physical reason. There might be a surgical option for treatment, but these aren’t always effective.
Finally, there are chronic pain conditions that aren’t fully understood, like fibromyalgia. Thought to be a neurological condition where nerves throughout your body exaggerate or misreport pain signals, fibromyalgia is often difficult to treat, since the origins of pain are largely unknown.
Can chronic pain go away on its own?
As we’ve seen, there are some cases where chronic pain could spontaneously stop. In some cases, the intensity of pain may fade over the years, and it’s possible that it could go away. However, these instances are likely the exception rather than the rule. Chronic pain is unpredictable, and there’s no way to tell if your pain may disappear. Chances are that a chronic pain condition will continue unless there’s an interventional procedure such as joint replacement to relieve the pain.
Ketamine for chronic pain
A surgical anesthetic developed in the 1960s and first used in the field toward the end of the Vietnam War, ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic that offers certain advantages and alternative uses in treating both pain and depression.
For chronic pain, low-dose intravenous (IV) ketamine infusions are an effective addition to many pain management plans. Many patients feel relief during and after their IV session, and a series of treatments offers relief that stays with you for months.
With offices in Oradell, New Jersey, New Rochelle, New York, and Manhattan, Keta Medical Center is conveniently located for you. Contact our nearest office by phone or online to find out more about ketamine infusions for chronic pain. We’re standing by to help, so get in touch with us today.
