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Medication Is Not The Only Treatment For Chronic Pain

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Chronic pain is a very big problem that far too many people face.
An added problem is that many people turn to pain medications far too quickly. This can be your physician's fault as well.

Obviously, no one wants to be in pain, especially for a long time. There is no way I can tell you from my vantage point here whether or not a pain medication should have been given to you or not but what I can tell you is if you are getting pain medication you are doing yourself a major disservice if you are not getting some counseling as well.

By counseling I mean that you have been told why you are on medications and how you can measure improvement. In addition, there should be a treatment designed to allow you to work on improving the cause of the pain. For instance if you are suffering from joint pain, find out what can attack that aspect of the pain and get treatment, not just numbing of the pain.

Reported By Dr. Brian McDonough, KYW Newsradio Medical Editor

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