The unit's new phase focuses on comprehensive care that seeks not only to alleviate pain but also to improve mobility, restore autonomy, and reduce daily life limitations. The approach combines various therapeutic options with the coordination of multidisciplinary professionals, considering each patient's physical and emotional consequences.
This resumption coincides with the European Day of Awareness on Pain, celebrated today, October 21st. According to the Spanish Society of Pain (SED), chronic pain affects 25.9% of the Spanish population, causing difficulties with walking, sleeping, working, as well as anxiety and depression.
Conditions requiring specialized care include chronic low back pain and sciatica, herniated discs, advanced osteoarthritis, and various forms of neuropathic pain, such as diabetic neuropathy or postherpetic neuralgia, which is the focus of this year's commemoration due to diagnostic and therapeutic challenges.
Specialized units offer therapeutic options like nerve blocks, image-guided injections, radiofrequency, and intravenous pharmacological treatments. The choice depends on the pain's origin, progression, and the patient's clinical status. Medication, especially opioid analgesics, is also reviewed and adjusted to manage adverse effects and minimize risks.
The multidisciplinary approach involves specialties such as anesthesiology, rehabilitation, traumatology, rheumatology, physiotherapy, and psychology, to address the physical, functional, and emotional consequences of persistent pain and help patients maintain maximum possible autonomy.
