If you head to the doctor with the suspicion that you broke your arm, it’s pretty easy to test your hypothesis with an imaging test. An X-ray will tell you all you need to know about your arm, and it will pave the way for a treatment plan. However, not all medical conditions can be so easily diagnosed with the assistance of an imaging test. Others, like chronic pain, often require a variety of different diagnostic efforts to come up with an accurate conclusion. In today’s blog, we take a closer look at the different methods used to diagnose chronic pain.

Diagnosing Chronic Pain

Every chronic pain situation is different, so there is no one-size-fits-all method for diagnosing the problem. Instead, a combination of methods are used and studied in connection with one another to form a diagnosis. Here’s a look at some of those diagnostic methods:

Imaging Tests – Imaging tests may not be as effective for chronic pain as they are for broken bones, but we can still learn a lot from them. They may not be able to always tell us what’s wrong, but they can help doctors rule out potential problems. A physician can use an imaging test to rule out fractures or disc herniation, and sometimes more detailed images can help determine if an inflammatory chronic pain condition is the likely culprit.

Patient Discussion – Talking with the patient is also a very helpful form of developing a diagnosis. We’ll want to know where pain resides, what makes it worse, what makes it better and what types of symptoms you’re experiencing. Be as detailed as possible, because all of this helps a physician make a comprehensive diagnosis.

Functional Testing – Sometimes your doctor will ask you to perform a few movement exercises to see if it triggers a flare up or brings relief. Seeing your body in motion and how it responds to action can tell a physician a great deal about the muscles and soft tissues in your body. Trust that they know what they’re doing when they ask you to perform a few stretches or exercises.

Psychological Exams – As we’ve discussed on the blog in the past, oftentimes there is a significant psychological component to physical pain. Your doctor isn’t trying to determine if you’re crazy by diving into your mental health, they are trying to understand the full scope of the condition and how psychological-based interventions could provide physical pain relief. Questionnaires or neurological exams are common for complex chronic pain conditions.

Bloodwork – Testing a blood sample is another way to determine what’s going on in your body. A blood test can look for the presence of an infection, overproduction of certain blood cells or other biomarkers tat could help pinpoint what’s causing discomfort in your body.

Used together with one another, a good pain management specialist can connect the findings collected through the above techniques and come up with an accurate diagnosis for your individual condition. To see this plan put into action, reach out to Dr. Cohn’s office today.