Comprehensive Pain Management and Treatments at UPMC

UPMC Pain Management cares for and treats people who have acute, chronic, and other types of pain.

Our experts will review your case and schedule a consult to discuss your:

• Pain symptoms and how severe they are.
• Treatment goals.
• Options to best manage and treat your pain.

Finding the right treatments can take time, but we'll create a custom care plan for you. We often include a mix of noninvasive and invasive treatments.

Note: Most pain treatments, shots, and medicines require prior consent from your health insurance. This can take between 3 and 5 business days. Without approval, you may not be able to have certain treatments or receive medicines at your first visit.

Noninvasive Pain Treatments

Our team brings experts of many types to find the right pain treatments for you.

When appropriate, we offer noninvasive treatments that don't require surgery. We may suggest these as a first step to treating your pain.

Treatments and services may include:

• Acupuncture.
• Cancer-related pain care.
• Exercise to boost physical and heart health.
• Fibromyalgia group therapies.
• Food and sleep counseling.
• Gait and postural training.
• Headache programs.
• Medical marijuana.
• Pain rehabilitation.
• Physical skills check, work hardening, and job-site review.
• Review of bone, muscle, cartilage, tendon, ligament, and joint pain.
• Self-monitoring.
• Stress relief, relaxation therapy, and self-hypnosis.

Prescription and over-the-counter medicines may include:

• Acetaminophen (Tylenol).
• Anti-anxiety medicines.
• Anticonvulsants.
• Antidepressants.
• Musculoskeletal agents.
• Opioids and non-opioids.
• Pain, swelling, and fever reducers.

Interventional Pain Management Techniques

For some people, noninvasive treatments don't reduce their pain enough.

Interventional methods are less-invasive ways to treat pain. They can help ease pain and reduce the use of oral medicines.

We give these treatments alone or mix them with other therapies.

UPMC Pain Management offers the latest methods, such as:

• BOTOX® shots.
• Epidural steroid shots.
• Facet joint and intercostal nerve block.
• Intrathecal pain pump.
• Joint, peripheral nerve, and trigger point shots.
• Ketamine infusion.
• Neuromodulation.
• Radio-frequency ablation.
• Spinal cord stimulator.
• Sympathetic nerve blocks.
• Ultrasound-guided techniques.

UPMC Chronic Pain Management

UPMC chronic pain management experts will work with you to help decrease your pain.

You'll be a valued member of your care team. Together, we'll design a custom program to teach you how to manage your pain.

We want you to go back to your daily routine and be able to exercise.

Treatments at some UPMC pain management locations may include:

• Aquatic therapy, pilates, mindfulness, and biofeedback.
• Gentle physical therapy designed for chronic pain.
• Physical medicine and rehab sessions aimed at improving your health.
• Psychology-based tips to help deal with chronic pain.

Pain Medication Tapering and Management

Our pain experts and mental health care teams work to keep your medicine doses as low as possible. We also help manage your current medicines.

We also may offer:

• Medicine tapering.
• Treatment for substance use disorders.

Pain medicines

Pain meds can help decrease discomfort and lessen pain.

These may include:

• Neuropathic pain medicine.
• NSAIDs.
• Over-the-counter drugs.
• Steroids.

We help people of all ages with health concerns and pain issues. We're here to help you find relief and have a better day-to-day life.

Interventional Anesthesiology

You can count on the experts at UPMC Pain Management to give complete care.

We offer the latest services, techniques, and treatments, such as:

• Epidurals.
• Nerve blocks.
• Radiofrequency ablation.
• Spinal cord stimulators (trial before placement).
• Steroid shots.
• Trigger point shots.

Movement-Based Pain Treatments

Providers at UPMC offer movement-based physical and occupational therapies to reduce pain levels.

Occupational therapy (OT)

Our OT experts learn how pain affects your daily life and activities. They can help you find ways to return to doing the things you love.

Some people with chronic pain want to get back to work or do more around their homes. Others want to return to school or be more active with family and friends.

Our OTs can help you work toward these and other goals.

Physical therapy (PT) for chronic pain

People living with chronic pain often try PT.

Our PT experts have training in chronic pain care. How we work with people differs from standard PT.

We know that people with pain may fear movement. We'll work with you to slowly increase activity without flaring pain.

Our team can also:

• Teach you skills that have helped other people who live with chronic pain. You'll learn how to take better care of your body and improve how it works.
• Work with home health care experts who give people medicines and infusions, including those with cancer pain.
• Refer you for pain rehab or detox services.