Sorry to ruffle your feathers, Daffy, but pain hurts all of us. And in an era of instant gratification and direct pharmaceutical marketing, it seems there’s a pill for every ache.

Yet the growing field of pain management does not solely fall back on anti-inflammatories and even prescription opiates. Three area clinics share a distaste for that approach while offering the Daffy Ducks of the world a wide variety of treatments.

Dr. Sridhar Vasudevan is the medical director of the Center for Pain Rehabilitation at Community Memorial Hospital. He takes a holistic-styled approach that focuses first on the patient’s psychological state.

"I make a lot of people angry by saying, ‘It’s in your head,’" Vasudevan says. "What I mean is, ‘You can rethink the pain.’"

While working to address the cause of pain, Vasudevan also addresses the patient’s approach to coping with the pain. He says he spends an hour with every patient, listening to his or her concerns and pointing out their health positives as much as their negatives. Therapies at the Center for Pain Rehabilitation are functionality focused. Surgery and drugs do complement physical therapy when necessary, but the psychological component is the foundation of it all.

"The whole philosophy is, it’s your pain, you have to deal with it," Vasudevan says.

Vasudevan says sports medicine most closely mirrors the approach he takes to dealing with pain. In sports, the idea is to get the athlete back on the field as soon as possible, so functionality and coping with discomfort are paramount.

Two area clinics practice interventional therapy. Typical patients haven’t found relief from traditional approaches but are unable or unwilling to endure surgery.

"Most pain results from inflammation, either from trauma or natural wear and tear in the body," says Dr. Vijay Singh of Pain Diagnostic Associates. "You have to get to the exact source. Getting to the exact source is tricky."

Both Advanced Pain Management and Pain Diagnostic Associates use these interventional therapies, which include precise nerve blocks to identify the pain generator. Local anesthetic injections — often near the spine, where pain often originates — allow doctors to zero in on the pain.

Once pain has been isolated, minimally invasive procedures may be used. These often have shorter rehabilitation periods than full surgery. Advanced Pain Management also offers patients other means of recovery, including psychological therapies, medication management, lifestyle modification and physical therapy. Alternative medicine, such as acupuncture and massage therapy, is also provided as a complementary service.

"When seeking treatment for pain, it is important for a patient to look for a practice that offers a comprehensive approach," says Dr. Bhupinder Saini, founder of Advanced Pain Management.

Singh’s end game is to prevent the prescriptions of opiates such as oxycodone, which has been linked to heroin use and abuse. "Once you start them on the path of prescribing opiates, they just keep on," Singh says. m