What are the treatments for chronic pain?

People asking about treatments for chronic pain often want a cost along with the list. The cost has to come from the clinician treating you.

The options MedlinePlus lists

MedlinePlus is plain about the limits. Chronic pain is not always curable, but treatments can help.

It then names two groups. Treatments may include medicines, including pain relievers. There are also non-drug treatments, such as acupuncture, physical therapy, and sometimes surgery.

Matching a treatment to your pain

Ranking the options, matching them to kinds of pain and putting a price on any of them are jobs for a clinician who has examined you.

Turning the list into questions

Take the groups to your appointment as a checklist: medicines, non-drug treatments, and surgery. For each option your clinician proposes, ask what it is expected to do for your pain, how long it runs, and what it costs. Ask for the estimate in writing, and ask whether it is a ballpark or a firm quote. Fuller reading is on the MedlinePlus chronic pain page and in the NCCIH overview of complementary approaches.

Treatment and cost together

A list of treatments is not a plan, and a plan with no stated cost is only half of one. In Garfield, ask for both before you agree to anything.