PAIN TREATMENT/PROCAINE THERAPY: : RESPONSE TO PROCAINE
Experience using intravenous procaine to treat over one hundred patients with chronic pain shows that it is difficult to predict individual’s reaction.
There seems to be a series of response patterns after intravenous procaine, depending more on the patient’s reaction than on the actual dose of procaine.
Some notice that, after the first injection, they become much less aware of the pain. This persists until the next injection. Actually, after the course, the pain has faded away from the awareness. Although this is the most positive response to procaine, it is not the most common.
Another response is that the pain recurs with the same intensity after the first injection. But the severity of the pain is actually reduced after successive injections. This pain reduction is maintained by a continuing course of procaine at weekly, two-weekly or monthly intervals.
Sometimes the intervals between the disappearance, and the recurrence, of pain run into months. A procaine ‘top-up’ is then needed.
Another pattern, after intravenous procaine, is a changed awareness to be felt. They often describe a ‘floating’ feeling, being no longer aware of pain. This feeling lasts about half an hour to several hours. Often, after recovery, there is no longer the same pain intensity or reaction to it. The most common pattern is a combination of the above.
The procaine treatment is considered to be part of an overall medical consultation. The fees would therefore be appropriate for the time taken: in the range of $25 to $40. However, it must be stressed that this treatment may still be regarded as controversial although results of trials have been presented at pain conferences in Australia and overseas.
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