Painful conditions need to be treated to prevent them from becoming chronic and to diminish already chronic pain to more manageable levels. When patients suffer from acute pain this may either resolve on its own or advance to subacute and chronic pain. Once the conditions become chronically painful, they are wound up at the level of the central nervous system and a far greater pain signal is delivered to the brain, than the one that was received at the spinal cord. While prevention of this phenomenon is the best course, this is not always possible. There are certain types of pain that will become chronic, regardless of intervention in the early stages. Additionally many patients with chronic pain have had these conditions for extended periods of time and have not received adequate treatment.

At Bay Area Pain Medical Associates, we believe that acute pain should be treated aggressively to stop it from evolving into chronic pain. When chronic pain develops, it also should be treated aggressively. Proper diagnosis is essential and knowledge of how to treat specific types of chronic pain is critical if a good outcome is to be established. Understanding the complex interplay of biologically based illnesses and injuries with the psychological effects and social adjustments of pain is the key to good outcomes.

Our goal is to determine which types of chronic pain are present and to come up with the best treatment for managing each type of pain. Once an accurate pain diagnosis is established we use appropriate treatment modalities to bring the pain back under the control of the patient. It is often impossible to stop chronic pain completely, but it usually can be brought to more tolerable levels and can be made more predictable in the individual patient's life. Toward that goal we establish treatment plans, with contingencies if initial treatment is not effective. We use all modalities and if we are not personally capable of delivering the proper treatment, we refer our patients to other specialists, who can provide the proper care. It is also our philosophy that bringing the pain under improved control is not enough. We help our patients recover the equilibrium that has been lost in their struggle with chronic pain. Recovery and establishment of robust living in the presence of residual pain is our guiding principle.