Symptomatic sciatica treatment represents the general rule when it comes to the majority of radicular pain therapies. Most sciatica treatments are not designed to actually resolve or cure anything, but instead are simply provided as a means of making the condition more comfortable to live with.
Symptomatic treatment is defined as care practices which are geared towards pain management, rather than solving the underlying causative condition. Although doctors have been educated not to treat symptoms, they generally ignore this most basic medical premise and instead follow the easy path to financial success.
This essay details why symptomatic care has become the norm, rather than the exception, despite its poor results and high ongoing costs.
Symptomatic Sciatica Treatment Concerns
Symptomatic treatment is fine for those individuals who can not find lasting relief due to extreme damage or disease in the spine. These people might be suffering all the time and methods of pain management are certainly humane and appropriate in these cases. However, this scenario definitely does not represent the average sciatica patient. These people can find lasting and permanent relief, if only they would have access to the correct method of enacting a cure.
I regularly get letters from patients asking why they have not found a permanent cure using many of the symptomatic modalities common to all back pain treatment. It is obvious that their care providers never took the time to explain that massage, TENS or drugs are not likely to cure their pain, but will instead only make it less uncomfortable to live normally.
I always wish that doctors and therapists would explain these details to patients before putting them into long-term treatment regimens and taking most of their money. A bit of honesty and disclosure would be great here.
Symptomatic Treatment Exceptions
Rather than list all the possible symptomatic treatments, it is far easier and more concise to list the few therapy options which do not qualify as symptomatic in nature:
Sciatica surgery is certainly not symptomatic treatment in most instances, but also does not demonstrate good curative results for most conditions. Spinal operations also have a tremendous variety of serious risk factors to consider.
Spinal decompression is a noninvasive option which seeks to resolve some of the underlying causes of spinally-induced sciatica. This care practice works best for disc pathologies. It is a finite treatment, but does cost a large amount of money upfront.
Knowledge therapy instructs patients how to cure mindbody sciatica pain through an easy to apply approach taught by an innovator in the back and neck pain sector: Dr John Sarno. This therapy has no risks and no inherent costs, but can not provide cures for some types of structurally-induced pain.
Symptomatic Sciatica Treatment Considerations
Please understand that most of your treatment choices are simply not designed to cure your pain. They are designed to allow doctors to be proactive in cases of painful complaints, by doing something, anything, to satisfy the patient. These methods are really little more than an aspirin, or a bandage, when it comes to their effects. They are also very profitable. After all, a cure makes a patient go home well and never return. Meanwhile, symptom-based care forces patients to return over and over again for maximum monetary gain.
Symptomatic treatment might not cure, but it is a good choice for those patients still searching for a real solution to their pain. If you are considering symptomatic care or are currently using one or more of these modalities, here are some guidelines which every patient must understand: These treatments will never cure you.
Doctors should provide this factual information clearly and concisely. Some doctors may say or do things which are not ethically correct in order to keep patients in ongoing care. This may include misdiagnosis or the exaggeration of the severity of the condition. Many continuous care practices demonstrate risk factors. Some enact health consequences, while others simply have monetary risks. Finding a real cure is always a preferred path.
Sciatica > Sciatica Treatment > Symptomatic Sciatica Treatment
