![]() ![]() While these drugs can cause debilitating addictions, withholding them from the people who need them most can induce incredible damage. That’s not to say that electrical stimulation will completely eliminate opiate use. “This is a new frontier for treating spinal cord injuries, in terms of being able to bypass the damaged area and restore capabilities and function,” says neurosurgeon Ali Rezai, Associate Dean of Neuroscience and Director of the Neurological Institute at The Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center. Although this particular study comes from Abbott Laboratories, the same company that produces spinal-cord stimulators, less-invested sources are also optimistic. When a recent study examined data from opioid-using patients who received an SCS, it found that subjects who removed their system went on to take higher average daily doses of opioids than those who continued the therapy. ![]() “When feedback is going to the brain, the body focuses more on that pleasant feeling and essentially pushes out the channel of pain sensation.” “Your brain can only focus on so many things,” he says. My doctor, Raimy Amasha at Austin’s Capitol Pain Clinic, put it like this: When someone hits their funny bone, almost universally, they’ll reach over to rub their hurt elbow because it creates a nice sensation that distracts from the ache. A spinal cord stimulator (SCS) is one of those treatments.Ī SCS works by overriding the pain signals your body sends to your brain. ![]() So the medical establishment, and their patients, have long sought more effective pain relief without them. Sometimes, as in my case, pain pills really do help, but for other conditions, opiates just aren’t as effective as other options. “All of a sudden, instead of having normal sensation, you have pain, or a terrible ongoing sensation that won’t go away,” Burton says. Our brains think this repeated signal indicates a continuing problem. “But sometimes, somebody inherits a bad gene, or gets injured, or something nobody knows goes amiss.” As a result of this unknown cause, certain neural circuits might start firing over and over again. Allen Burton, medical director of neuromodulation at Abbott. “When neural circuits all work, it’s like a symphony,” says Dr. ![]() And in many cases, doctors can’t pin down a culprit. That’s 20 percent of all humans on Earth, more than those with heart disease, cancer, and diabetes combined, according to Abbott Laboratories. Janet JayĪccording to a 2011 report from the non-profit National Academy of Medicine (formerly known as the Institute of Medicine), chronic pain affects 1.5 billion people worldwide. The author, who has a cyborg implant, poses with another friendly machine at the Alamo Drafthouse Slaughter Lane movie theater in Austin, Texas. And this type of therapy might also be able to help some of the 100 million Americans who suffer from chronic pain. Although I was scared to go under the knife, I was more than willing to become a cyborg in order to find even partial relief. Because of that, I qualified to have a spinal cord stimulator, an electronic device used to treat chronic pain, implanted into my back. That is, until a couple of years ago, when a routine CAT scan finally caught a structural problem with my spine. Despite some amazing doctors and the expensive tests at their disposal, they could never see anything wrong, so I never got a diagnosis. I’ve slept on the kitchen linoleum, because the carpet felt too soft to stand.įor 17 years, I went to doctor after doctor, undergoing scans, physical therapy, and just about every “alternative” treatment that promised relief. If I sit or stand for any period of time, or lift something heavy or fall, I pay for it, sometimes for weeks or months. Swallowing a few Aleve didn’t help-in fact, nothing did. At 15, I began feeling aching, stabbing, and burning sensations in my lower back and down my legs. I don’t remember what it feels like to live without pain. ![]()
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