The Naked Truth About Women and Pain: Finding the Right Treatment

Pain Relief Treatment Options

Here, the most exciting advances in both traditional and alternative remedies.

Potent painkillers such as the opioids vicodin and oxycontin

• Helps: Everything from lower-back pain to cancer pain. These are often prescribed by doctors when over-the-counter anti-inflammatories, such as aspirin, don't work. (A recent study of patients with spinal diseases concluded that use of opioids rarely led to addiction.)

Antidepressants such as Elavil, and antiseizure medications such as neurontin

• Helps: Fibromyalgia and interstitial cystitis, a painful bladder disorder. These drugs work by easing neurological discomfort, including burning sensations and stabbing pains.

Interventional pain management

• Helps: Cancer pain, and lower-back, neck, and shoulder pain.
  In this procedure, doctors inject local anesthetics directly into the nerves responsible for pain, preventing signals from reaching the brain.

Spinal cord stimulation

• Helps: Back pain, leg pain. Doctors use an implanted device to deliver a mild electrical current that competes with pain signals.