Pain Medicine Fellowship

What is Pain?

Pain, by definition, is localized physical suffering associated with a bodily disorder or a basic bodily sensation induced by an unpleasant stimulus, received by nerve endings, and characterized by physical

discomfort. Its unpleasantness can take many forms, whether it’s the sting of a burn, the daily ache of arthritis, a throbbing headache, or that persistent soreness in your back. What you might not be aware of is the science behind why you hurt.

Pain involves a complex interaction between specialized nerves, your spinal cord, and your brain. Imagine a complicated traffic system, with on-ramps, different speed limits, traffic lights, varying road conditions, a traffic control center, an emergency response system, and more. The vehicle you are driving also makes a difference, because the experience of pain is different from person to person.

Pain is not only physical, but emotional as  well. It involves learning and memory.  How you feel and react to pain depends on what’s causing it, as well as many personal factors. WVU Medicine Pain Management strives to treat the whole person, not just the physical symptoms of pain. Our trained providers will take the time to figure out the underlying causes of your pain and develop an integrative and individualized plan to target that area and improve your quality of life.

The WVU Medicine Way

Pain management the WVU Medicine way looks at the person as a whole. Our team of specialized providers want to give patients  the best opportunity possible to live their lives to the fullest potential with the least amount  of pain possible. Our number one goal is to help our patients return to their highest level of functioning and independence and to help them improve their quality of life.

All patients will go through our intake process, and our team will construct an individualized plan for each patient to help him/her through his/her pain management journey. Our center offers a variety of modalities to help get our patients back to a state of well being that shows a measurable improvement and allows them to return to a fuller functioning life. The WVU Medicine Center for Integrative Pain Management (CIPM) was formed following a charge to develop a better way to treat pain in the midst of a serious opioid epidemic. There is increasing data that supports the effective use of non-pharmacological therapies in the treatment of acute and chronic pain. The center takes what is traditional pain medicine and integrates it with a variety of new ideas.