Managing chronic pain

There is now a way for Connecticut doctors to monitor possible drug abuse among patients seeking relief from debilitating pain.

But, treating chronic pain is not just about taking medication. An epidural steroid injection can ease a herniated disc or an innovative laser procedure may fix the problem.

Patient Dr. Bill Begg says, "I was having quite a bit of back pain. I missed work on a regular basis. I was having numbness going down my leg. When I did go to work, I couldn't work my whole shift." 

Thanks to Dr. David Kloth, who specializes in interventional pain management, Dr. Begg is now training for an Iron Man competition. He says,  "I got my life back. I have not taken a Tylenol."

But addiction to prescription painkillers can occur among patients. Thats why Dr. Kloth was among those pushing to establish the Connecticut Prescription Monitoring Program.

Dr. Kloth with Connecticut Pain Center in Danbury says, "The purpose of this program is to provide better care for our patients. These medications can be highly addictive and a patient can get themselves into trouble without even realizing it."

Pharmacists are required by law to report patients who are prescribed controlled substances. That way, doctors can monitor potential abuse. Dr. Kloth says by looking at the information they can ask, "Are they having a problem with medication, are they getting drugs from five different doctors."

And if anything questionable pops up, an alert is put out, reducing the risk of addiction for pain medication.

When it comes to treatment,  Dr. Kloth adheres to less is more.  He says, "If we can fix you with physical therapy, great. If it requires a simple injection, okay. But the further you go down the pathway, it's more invasive and we want to avoid that."

Medication he says, should be the last option, when everything else has failed.