Health

Are You Living With Fibromyalgia? Here Are Treatment Options to Help You Manage the Pain

Living with fibromyalgia may mean enduring musculoskeletal pain all over your body. Memory issues, sleep, and fatigue may also accompany your pain symptoms. Hyattsville anesthesiology involves chronic pain management options to help relieve pain.

No single treatment can offer relief for all symptoms. Therefore, your doctor may try a variety of treatments to help improve your general health. Here are a few treatment options that your doctor can recommend.

Medications

Your doctor may recommend medications to help reduce pain associated with fibromyalgia to improve your sleep. You may receive OTC pain relievers like Tylenol, ibuprofen, and Aleve. However, your doctor may not recommend opioid medications as they can cause significant side effects.

Additionally, your doctor can recommend antidepressants to help ease your pain and fatigue. Sometimes, medications for managing epilepsy can help reduce your fibromyalgia. No medication may work for all your symptoms, but you can achieve a cumulative effect.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Your doctor may recommend therapy to help you change your behaviors that cause pain and uncomfortable fibromyalgia symptoms. Therapy may teach you to approach exercise in a way that does not cause flare-ups and improve your sleeping habits. CBT may benefit you more if you have depression alongside your fibromyalgia symptoms.

Treatment will involve three phases. The first phase involves assuring you of facts about your condition. The next phase will focus on teaching you skills for reducing pain and applying them to daily living.

Relaxation Techniques

Your doctor may recommend making active changes to help you lead a less stressful and more restful lifestyle. Examples can include meditative breathing to lower your blood pressure and heart rate. Meditation may not remove the pain but it can help your perception of pain.

You can also handle your stress better to impact your pain levels. Additionally, you can practice good sleep hygiene and limit coffee intake.

Biofeedback

Another relaxation technique you can benefit from is biofeedback to help you manage fibromyalgia. During this therapy, specialized technology will monitor involuntary body functions. The monitor may detect any stressors that cause problematic responses.

Your therapist will then teach you relaxation techniques to help manage these involuntary responses. You may learn how to control these involuntary responses as you continue your therapy. You will not require technology to manage these responses as your symptoms improve.

Muscle Relaxants

For some reason, a prescription of muscle relaxants may help treat some of your fibromyalgia symptoms. Your doctor may prescribe Cyclobenzaprine to help you sleep more peacefully at night. The drug may also ease pain and fatigue.

You may also receive Tizanidine to ease pain, tenderness, and pain. You may notice improved sleep symptoms after using this medication. However, you may experience side effects like chest pain, headaches, fever, and nausea.

The exact cause of fibromyalgia remains unknown, making it difficult to have a test to diagnose it. Also, there is no known cause for fibromyalgia. Therefore, your treatment may aim to relieve associated symptoms.

Your doctor will prescribe OTC pain relievers, antidepressants, and muscle relaxants to improve your symptoms. Cognitive behavioral therapy, relaxation techniques, and biofeedback can also benefit you. You may go through different approaches before your doctor can determine and develop a working treatment plan for you.