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Wednesday, May 13, 1992 ~ North Shore News ~ 57

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Chronic pain treatment makes

PEOPLE suffering from
chrenic pain know how
much of a pain it can be to
get progressive medical
treatment.

By Anna Marie D'Angelo
News Reporter

At the Thorson Pain
Rehabilitation Clinic in Delbrook,
a team of health care profes-
sionals specializes in the treatment
of the complicated medical prob-
tem.

“The old approach was to treat
chronic pain the same way as
acute pain. This was counter-
productive and caused a iot of
problems,’’ said Dr. Zenona
Hrabar, one of the five physicians
who work at the clinic.

The difference between chronic
and acute pain involves time.

Chronic pain persists after three
months, which is the accepted
time that the healing process is
supposed to be biologically com-
pleted.

Medical doctors usually refer
patients to the clinic, which
operates through the medical ser-
vices plan.

The average person referred to
the clinic has been suffering with
chronic pain for three years; some
people have suffered with the
Problem for up to 20 years. Most
of the patients have gone through
various medical treaiments for
their problem before coming to
the clinic.

**] don’t think it’s a place you
go first,’ said Shirley La Liberte,
a Surrey resident who has been
going to the clinic since February.

(A SHA

41877 Marine Dr, N. Van.
#4-38918 Progress Way, Squamish

. Whistler

&& Pain is controlling
their lives, and we are
trying to empower
them... 9F

— Dr. Zenona Hrabar

La Liberte injured her neck and

back in a car accident two years
ago. and still suffers pain from the
injury.

“Pm still having a hard time.
They are definitely helpful. [ think
the biggest thing is they help you
cope with the anxiety and cope
with the pain,‘* said La Liberie.

Besides receiving counselling
and learning biofeedback tech-
niques for relaxation, La Liberte
also receives injections of anes-
thetics and steroids in trigger
points (painful muscle areas)
related to her neck problem.

Patients usually have a two-
monih wait to see a docto: at the
clinic. The first visit is a one-hour
assessment.

Subsequent treatments range
from one to four visits to the
clinic each week for two to four
months.

Appreximately 600 patients,
some coming from as far away as
Quesnel, ure treated each year at
the three-year-old clinic.

“*T tell patients that if
everything goes fine, at the end of
the program they will probably
still have the pain, but the pain
will be on the backburner of their
minds and they will probably be

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NEWS photo Mike Wakefield

Shirley La Liberte becomes aware of when she is relaxed in the Alpha chair while her blood
pressure is being monitored. The chair has internal speakers and is hooked up to a TV monitor that

shows relaxing video tapes.

able to do things they were not
able to do before,’’ said Dr.
George Jaworski, another phiysi-
cian at the clinic.

The clinic has a multi-discipline
approach that uses various health
care specialists.

fc has a staff of five medical
doctors, five family therapists,
three physiotherapists and four
nurses who specialize in bicfeed-
back techniques.

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The family therapists are needed
because an entire family can be
affected by the suffering of one
member.

The multi-discipline approach
has been around for several de-
cades, and Jaworski said 60% of
patients show significant im-
provement after getting treatment
at a chronic pain clinic.

Clinic staff say chronic pain
sufferers shoulc uct take narcotics

IN-STOCK PATTERNS

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and they should avoid unneccesary
inactivity.

“The idea (of our medical ‘ap-
proach) is to return contro! to the
patient. Pain is controlling their
lives, and we are trying to em-
power them and make them have
control of their lives again,”’ said
Hrabar.

For more information, call
984-PAIN (7246).

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