Pain doctor Aida Kinderytė – about suffering for no reason, hygiene of emotions and why what we don’t have hurts | 15MAX

Kaunas University of Health Sciences Pain Physician, Kaunas Clinics Pain Management Branch and Kaunas Clinic “Agatas” Aida Kinderytė He says that pain is, above all, a very individual sensation.

People feel and experience it differently, but, says the doctor, controlling pain is very important. Because it leads to a reduced quality of life, a person suffering from pain develops depression, and sometimes the pain becomes unbearable.

15 Minute LIFE Conversation with A. Kinderyte: on pain caused not only by illness but also by our way of life, on the limits of human endurance and when to seek help from a pain doctor.

– Doctor, you might want to start the conversation with who the pain doctor is.

– One who specializes in this field. It is not a separate specialty, there is no separate residence. An anesthesiologist or neurologist who has completed a residency and does not require additional training may be a pain physician. You can also be a doctor in any other field who has served a certain number of hours in the diagnosis and treatment of chronic pain and has received a certificate that accredits it. It is not necessary for anesthesiologists and neurologists to complete such courses; they can be pain relievers immediately after completing residency.

A pain doctor treats chronic pain. And a chronic pain is one that lasts more than three months, often for no reason. Or the cause may be, but the pain does not go away – the drug is already out of stock, or for some reason it is ineffective.

– What does the pain doctor do in this case?

– Adjust, balance the pharmacological treatment with the appropriate drugs for a specific patient. We also perform procedures: injecting drugs at certain points, certain places, and thus, by reducing inflammation, we can reduce pain.

– Are you talking about a term spoken in everyday language? pain blocking?

– Yes. However, we don’t block anything, we just inject medication at the source of the pain. But people know that term better, lockdown.

– Pain doctor: have you been to Lithuania before or is it a new field?

– It is quite new in Lithuania, although this service has existed for more than twenty years. The treatment of pain emerged after the restoration of Independence, when the walls were opened and doctors began to travel the world.

They saw this as an important area. In the world, in Europe, pain treatment has existed for many years. Our country is not exclusive and many people suffer from pain.

So we started to do it, only the previous path was complicated. It can be said that we only have painkillers, as such, approved by ministerial order, for two years.

– Why?

– It has been such a long bureaucratic road. However, the doctors treated the pain, and the anesthesiologists did so because they could perform many different interventional procedures with their license. Only until it was approved by ministerial order were they not pain doctors and this was not treated as an analgesic.

– What has changed the legal term?

– More doctors can do that, especially those who have completed their training. Doctors are now obtaining permits to work with patients in pain. Formality, adequate census of procedures, state funding have emerged.

Heads of hospitals and other medical institutions then provide such services in the institutions they administer, as they receive payment from health insurance funds. This was not the case before, in the past many were not interested in it. After all, it is said: there is no pain in a stranger.

– What’s the matter with you? Did you finish the training?

– No, I’m an anesthesiologist, so I didn’t have to finish the training. I’ve been doing that job for ten years, right after my residency.

I wouldn’t say that I came in on purpose in the sense that I wanted to work in this field, but it just happened. When I started working, then I saw that this field is very interesting for me, it is completely unknown, as if it had nothing to do with anesthesiology. But I was very curious and now I feel in my place and I can’t imagine myself anywhere else.

– Pain medicine means that you are in constant contact with people who experience, experience, experience constant pain. Is not easy.

– It’s very complicated. Those who really hurt a lot come. In general, when a person goes to a pain clinic, it means that they have already gone through many specialists, they have tried different treatments, but no one has helped. So, as they say themselves, the pain clinic is the last resort.

“You are my last hope”, is the phrase that people hear. This means that these people are very frustrated and suffer severe and long-lasting pain. There is little joy and there are almost no positive patients.

Pain doctors are still there ten in one. For a patient, he must be a psychologist, pharmacologist, neurologist, traumatologist, and perform many other roles.. You should consult the person who has come in full.

There are many psychological moments in the work of a pain doctor, it is necessary to talk a lot, explain, answer questions about why it hurts and what is happening.

In fact, very often it is not even clear what hurts. Chronic pain around the world remains an unsolved problem. Up to 30 percent of the total population suffers from chronic pain, which is one in three people.

It does not depend on the level of development of the country, the financing of medicine, or technological progress. There are a similar number of people suffering from pain around the world.