Almost 52 million Americans have dealt with chronic pain, a debilitating pain that persists for months or years.
The Cleveland Clinic is taking a different approach at treating chronic pain with a well-known drug that’s typically used as an anesthetic agent.
At 19, Emily Ryan was your typical college freshman, playing tennis, taking classes and enjoying her friends.
“I went to bed completely healthy, no issues, and I woke up completely paralyzed from the waist below and had peed the bed,” Ryan said.
That was the start of her 10-year journey with chronic pain.
“The conventional treatment of chronic pain is through the biomedical approach. So, here’s a medication, here’s an injection, here’s a surgery, oftentimes, not addressing the other components that are associated with it,” Comprehensive Pain Recovery Dr. Pavan Tankha said.
That’s why Tankha took a different approach at treating Emily, he used ketamine. ….more
