Skip to main content

Can Changing How You Think About Pain Lessen What You Feel?

July 19, 2016

Oregon has the fourth-highest rate of prescription pain killer abuse in the nation, so the state is implementing new guidelines that will require doctors to give lower doses and shorter prescriptions.

That's a challenge for patients who've relied on opioids to deal with their pain. Alternative treatments such as massage and acupuncture don't always work. So Providence Health is also offering to re-educate patients about pain to help them deal with pain by learning to think about it differently.

Nora Stern, a physical therapist and manager of the "Persistent Pain Project," spoke to about a dozen patients about the re-education. "This class was designed to help us all start to talk about pain differently. There’s a lot of new information about pain that leads us now to understand what pain is differently and what the options are for treatment.”

Read the rest of the story here

Comments