Welcome to Pain Management Center of RI

Our understanding of CRPS has increased significantly in the last decade.. Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) is a multisystem dysfunction, severe chronic pain.  It can cause severe disability.  It can be triggered by a minor trauma.  It is characterized by severe pain with sensory, trophic, autonomic, and motor abnormalities.  CRPS is characterized by a continuing pain that is disproportionate in time or degree to the usual cause of pain after trauma or other lesion.  This means that the degree of...

Basics of Understanding EDS There are three underlying issues to understand about Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS). It's important to understand each of these to better manage EDS.   The tissue that connects different parts of the body is called Connective Tissue. Tendons, ligaments, capsules around joints, skin are all examples of connective tissue. In EDS, this connective tissue is relatively weak; it can be stretched easily. Anything that gets stretched too much, may stay stretched (hence avoid dislocating or over...

EDS Connecting the dots Ehlers Danlos Syndrome is a complex condition. Managing the different issues with EDS is to understand ‘what is broken’ and then attempting to make the best of fixing it.  When I see a patient with EDS, I need to figure out what are the issues.  Sometimes it is a shoulder dislocation, knee pain, hip pain or neck pain that may be the primary issue. Besides the pain, there is the issue of intense fatigue, brain fog,...

It is much more efficient if you can spend some time to fill out the forms prior to coming in.  Please bring the forms with you after you have filled them out.  Considering the complexity of the pain conditions that Dr. Chopra treats, it helps him understand your condition better. It is a good idea to write a timeline (a detailed one would be better) of your or your child's condition.  Dr. Chopra actually does review it and it also...

Pradeep Chopra MD - Ehlers Danlos Syndrome Part 2 Continuing our quest to understand Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS).  In March 2017, the classification of EDS was updated to include some rare forms of EDS that had been discovered recently. As of now, there are 13 subtypes of EDS. Of the 13 subtypes, only two of them are considered common. Let's crunch some numbers to see how common or rare EDS is. The combined prevalence of all types of EDS is...

Pradeep Chopra MD – Ehlers Danlos Syndrome My area of interest has been in the management of complex chronic pain conditions.  I don’t call it as ‘treating’ these conditions but more as ‘managing’ these conditions to allow patients to be functional and have a better quality of life.  In medicine, we seldom ‘treat’ or ‘cure’ conditions.  Physicians mostly manage these conditions. We don’t treat or cure insulin dependent diabetes mellitus or migraine headaches. At best, we manage them. The human...

Pradeep Chopra MD's Blog on Chronic Pain.   This blog is the first of a series of blogs on the disease of chronic pain, medicine, and truths in medicine. Pain management has become a controversial topic in the last year or so.  The controversy is based mostly on the fact that there is a single drug or therapy that can control pain. This notion has come from physicians who are not trained in pain medicine. It has come mostly from...

Disclaimer  While I make every effort to broadcast correct information, I am still learning.  I will double check all my facts but realize that medicine is a constantly changing science and art.  One doctor may have a different way of doing things from another.  I am simply presenting my views. I welcome any comments, suggestions, or correction of errors.  I take no money from drug or device companies.  By reading this blog, you agree not to use this blog as...

Pain in the United States A new analysis of data from the 2012 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) has found that most American adults have experienced some level of pain, from brief to more lasting (chronic) pain, and from relatively minor to more severe pain. The analysis helps to unravel the complexities of a Nation in pain. It found that an estimated 25.3 million adults (11.2 percent) experience chronic pain—that is, they had pain every day for the preceding 3...

Pain Management History from the National Institute of Health (NIH): Early Greeks and Romans advanced the idea that the brain played a role in producing the perception of pain. In the 19th century, physician-scientists discovered that opiates such as morphine could relieve pain and chemist Felix Hoffmann developed aspirin from a substance in willow bark. Aspirin remains the most commonly used pain reliever. The French physician, Dr. Albert Schweitzer, proclaimed in 1931 that, “Pain is a more terrible lord of...

What Is Chronic Pain and Why Is It Important? Chronic pain is pain that lasts more than 3 to 6 months. It’s a very common problem. Results from the 2012 National Health Interview Survey show that: About 25.3 million U.S. adults (11.2 percent) had pain every day for the previous 3 months. Nearly 40 million adults (17.6 percent) had severe pain. Individuals with severe pain had worse health, used more health care, and had more disability than those with less severe pain. While acute pain...

It was wonderful to see so many new faces at The EDS Society 2017 Global Learning Conference. I met some wonderful people Everybody was super nice and wanted to learn about how they can help themselves. A special shout out to little Julia who is an amazing little girl. I hope the information I gave you helps, Julia, if you are reading this. I have included a link to my slides.  My apologies that I could not finish the presentations...

Heritable Disorders of Connective Tissue (HDCT) is defined by the conglomeration of generalized Joint Hypermobility (JHM), widespread fatigue, joint instability including recurrent subluxations and dislocations, musculoskeletal pain, chronic arthralgia, abnormal stature, early onset osteoarthritis, easy fragile fractures, cardiovascular, autonomic, ocular, dental, visceral, auditory, skin, ligament, tendon abnormalities (12, Castori, 13, Hakim). Heritable Disorders of Connective Tissue (HDCT) consists of Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, Marfan’s syndrome, Osteogenesis Imperfecta, Stickler Syndrome, Loeys-Dietz syndrome and other connective tissue disorder.  Of these Ehlers Danlos Syndrome...