If you suffer from chronic pain due to a neuromuscular disease (NMD), you’re already familiar with the ongoing struggle to pinpoint and reduce their pain points.  Muscular dystrophy, Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT), Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS), Post-Polio Syndrome (PPS), and muscular inflammation disorders can all cause regular, intense pain that can significantly lessen quality of life.

If you’ve experienced severe pain, you’ve probably made adjustments to your lifestyle to accommodate the discomfort you cope with on a daily basis. Frequent sites of pain are the back, followed by leg, shoulder, neck, buttock as well as hips feet, arms, and hands.

You may have tried over-the-counter medications, such as aspirin and ibuprofen.  Many people also look to physical therapy, nerve blocks, anti-depressants, seizure medications and narcotics for relief. Recently, acupuncture, chiropractic care, massage, magnets, biofeedback, relaxation therapy, hypnosis, and counseling have also come to the forefront when it comes to addressing the issue of daily, sometimes debilitating, pain.

However, according to a chronic pain study reported in the Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, the two treatments found to be most helpful when treating chronic pain were chiropractic care and drugs that serve as nerve blocks. Although the study authors note that more research needs to be done to further investigate these findings, a visit to a reputable chiropractor might be worth consideration.


For further information, refer to: "Chronic Pain in Persons with Neuromuscular Disease," Jensen, M PHD; Abresch, R MS; Carter, G MD; McDonald C MD, Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, vol 86, no 6, June 2005.