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Ronald Schwerzler, M.D. Dr. Schwerzler is board certified in both family and addiction medicine. He is a member of the American Society of Addiction Medicine and current president of the Oregon Society of Addiction Medicine. |
| You are here: TREATMENT PROGRAMS | CHRONIC PAIN MANAGEMENT |
| Chronic Pain Management |
Serenity Lane offers help for individuals who suffer from chronic pain and have become addicted to opiates because they have been "self medicating" with large amounts of prescription medications. Patients go through detox and then receive help learning alternative ways to deal with chronic pain without over-use of prescription opiates. ................................................................................................................................................ Serenity Lane is committed to providing state of the art chemical dependency treatment for patients with chronic pain. With the goal of completely freeing the patient from all addictive medications, our program progresses through several stages. A pre-admission assessment of each patient's physical, psychological and family/interpersonal issues is performed, focusing on the interplay of chronic pain, drug dependency, and their impact upon all aspects of the patient's life. The patient is interviewed, medical records are reviewed and, where appropriate, input is received from family and others. If the patient is motivated and deemed medically stable, s/he begins the inpatient phase of medically supervised detox from all addictive medications. These most often consist of opiates, (oxycontin, morphine, methadone, vicodin, percocet, demerol, dilaudid, codeine, darvon and others), but frequently include sedatives, tranquilizers and alcohol. Utilizing the latest pharmacologic and other clinical strategies, the patient is gradually withdrawn from all dependency-producing chemicals in a medically safe and psychologically supportive environment. While undergoing detox, the patient's pain is addressed in a number of pharmacologic as well an non-pharmacologic strategies. Classes of non-addictive medications suited for chronic pain, such as the so-called "neural stabilizers" (Neurontin, Depakote, Lamictal, Gabritril, Topamax and others) can be quite effective. Anti-inflammatory medicines, often rendered completely ineffective in the setting of enormous opiate dosing, can be quite valuable adjuncts to pain control. Similarly, antidepressants are most always more effective in relieving suffering in the patient no longer intoxicated with opiates. Non-pharmacologically, techniques that involve stretching, deep-breathing, visualization and meditation are dramatically more effective in the slowly detoxing, non-sedated, newly motivated patient. Indeed since the beginning of this program we have been surprised at the degree to which pain control has not been a significant obstacle to successful medical detox. Patients who had previously required astronomic doses of opiates suddenly find their degree of pain far more manageable, and almost invariably discover those large doses of addictive medications were primarily required to treat the withdrawal symptoms themselves. Prior to discharge the patient's case will be reviewed with his/her primary care physician and/or pain specialist. Strategies for pain management and for avoidance of relapse into opiate use is offered to any of the patient's clinical caregivers. READ MORE ABOUT: Opiate Withdrawal with Buprenorphine » For more information on Serenity Lane's chemical dependency treatment for the chronic pain patient please contact us at: Serenity Lane
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