This article is\u00a0in our series on Medications for Pain<\/strong>. What are your choices? How do various medications work? Pros and cons? How about side effects?<\/em><\/p>\n Anesthetics\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>are medications used to prevent sensations, particularly pain. Within this class, there are many different medications, and\u00a0many ways to use these medications, including:<\/p>\n Effect of Anesthetics:<\/strong> Anesthetics work by stabilizing nerve membranes, so it’s more difficult to transmit nerve signals, including pain signals.<\/p>\n Uses of Anesthetics:<\/strong> Although anesthetics are commonly used, there are few FDA-approved indications for anesthetics in specific pain disorders. The Lidoderm patch is FDA-approved for the pain of shingles (Post Herpetic Neuralgia). It’s also used for many other conditions, e.g. CRPS\u00a0(Complex Regional Pain Disorder or RSD), diabetic\u00a0nerve pain (Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy), low back pain, etc. Local or regional injections are used for low back pain, other spinal pain, CRPS, etc.<\/p>\n Side Effects: <\/strong>Anesthetics used on the skin can cause skin irritation, either because of the anesthetic itself or the adhesive in the patch. Injections\u00a0often cause temporary site irritation, either from the medication which is injected, or simply from injecting\u00a0liquid inside your body. By their very nature, injections are also imprecise, even when your doctor uses\u00a0fluoroscopy\u00a0to guide the needle. Too far away from the right spot and the injection may not be effective. Too close, especially to a major nerve, and more significant nerve irritation and pain can result.<\/p>\n IV<\/strong> anesthetics can cause a drop in blood pressure or heart beat irregularities, so these must be monitored during the infusion.<\/p>\n Cost and Insurance Coverage<\/strong> This article is\u00a0in our series on Medications for Pain. What are your choices? How do various medications work? Pros and cons? How about side effects? Anesthetics\u00a0are medications used to prevent sensations, particularly pain. Within this class, there are many different medications, and\u00a0many ways to use these medications, including: Topical (through the skin), for example, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.howtocopewithpain.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.howtocopewithpain.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.howtocopewithpain.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.howtocopewithpain.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.howtocopewithpain.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6052"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.howtocopewithpain.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6052\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8039,"href":"https:\/\/www.howtocopewithpain.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6052\/revisions\/8039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.howtocopewithpain.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.howtocopewithpain.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.howtocopewithpain.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
\nInsurance coverage for IV anesthetic treatment, for example, a lidocaine or ketamine infusion, can be very expensive. The cost is primarily for the hospital charges rather than the medication itself. However, as these treatments are in some cases very helpful, having your doctor go to bat for you with your insurance company to get them to pay for it is crucial for most patients.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"