Pain Medicine & Articular Neurology
Dr. Buratovich authored the article, Articular Neurology, published in the Naturopathic Doctor News and Review, July 2014.
In this excerpt from the article, Dr. Buratovich discusses pain:
Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional response to tissue injury. It is the most common reason for physician visits. As pain is a subjective experience, it may be graded on a Visual Analog Scale (0-10), also known as the Comparative Pain Scale; there is no objective measurement for pain. There are several types of pain, including nociceptive, neuropathic, reflex, and psychogenic.
- Nociceptive pain is a common type of joint pain. It is usually acute and is produced by mechanical (fixation/misalignment), thermal, or chemical means. It produces a sharp, dull, achy, throbbing type of pain, and responds well to osseous manipulation.
- Neuropathic pain is chronic and usually involves damage to the nerve fibers themselves, in proximity to joints, and is usually a result of compression or entrapment. It may also be caused by metabolic (diabetes mellitus) or neurological (multiple sclerosis) conditions. It produces a shooting, burning, tingling, numbing type of pain, and is difficult to treat.
- Reflex pain is a type of referred pain
- Psychogenic pain is usually a result of somatization, yet may still be relieved by expressive osseous manipulation
Read the full article here.