Using Neuroplasticity to Manage Chronic Pain

Currently, there are very few non-pharmaceutical pain management options for workers suffering from neuropathic injuries. What advancements have been made in treatment techniques for patients who are looking to move away from opioid-based treatment? In this episode of Workers Comp Matters, host Alan Pierce talks with Dr. Roberto Feliz about pain management and Scrambler Therapy. Roberto opens the interview by defining chronic pain and shares that the body maintaining localized inflammation within the tissue is how acute pain transforms into chronic pain. He states that the continued bombardment of pain signals to your spinal cord and central nervous system forces the neurons in your brain to change and form new neural connections. Roberto explains that Scrambler Therapy, a pain management technique that blocks pain signal transmission and provides non-pain information to the affected nerve fibers, aims to deceive the brain into reading the pain signals in a different way. He analyzes what types of pain respond well to this therapy style and what pain types, like degenerative arthritis, do not. Roberto closes the interview with a comparison of how accepting private insurance and workers’ comp services are of this new therapy and discusses the cost and frequency of treatment.