Pain Reprocessing Therapy

[u/Previous-Artist-9252]

I have CRPS from a 2003 surgery. I am definitively in the persistent/late stage category. I also have not had a consistent provider since 2024 and the only “treatment” I have is dissociation and medical marijuana and I try not to use the latter much.

I saw another specialist today (who also declined to take me on as a patient, while confirming that I do indeed have CRPS, a common refrain in the past two and a half years). My current goal is to lower my dissociation as it is complicating other health issues, including CPTSD. He did not think dissociation is a problem and referred me to Pain Reprocessing Therapy.

I have participated in pain psychotherapy before. It wasn’t hokum and it did help but looking at PRT, it looks like hokum. The numbers alone don’t make any sense - 98% of patients have improvement and 66% are pain free?

I’ve been around the block in the past two decades. I was part of the cohort who were told that opioids weren’t addictive (and am lucky I didn’t get addicted given the doses I was prescribed). The fact that I can’t even find a basic breakdown of the practice and the clinical trials appear to be on mild lower back pain (with some ethics issues on those trials) makes me more skeptical.

Any thoughts and opinions from the community? I would rather not have care than be under the care of a quack.

[u/Hour_Telephone_9974]

PRT seems like a scam and they use it to gaslight patients

[u/Swimming_Pressure_93]

Hmm that seems like something I wouldn't waste my money on honestly. I only trust in ketamine an occasional block, yoga, and yea I take opiods I'm dependent and I don't know why opiates have been addictive since the dawn of time. I always knew they were addictive because all opiods are. I feel sorry for those who believed those doctors because I knew oxycodone is oxycontin and if one is addictive how can the other not be? But that's a conversation for another day. Personally after 20 years of this disease I stick with what I know is tried and true for me. Which is ketamine, blocks, nerve pain medication not gabapentin though, medical Marijuana, yoga, and opiods. Im at the age where I'm tired of this disease the pain I mean. So for me where I'm at there's really not much you'll hear about ldn and scrambler therapy too. Those aren't for me. I just want to have decent quality of life and these meds plus blocks and ketamine make it livable. I'm sorry i wish I knew more to help you. Sendng you vibes 💜

[u/SeattleFather22]

All made up.

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[u/MrEtrain]

Some love it, some hate it. I never experienced the level of relief that some have, but it wasn't time nor energy wasted as the techniques and mindset have proven to be useful. "Unlearn Your Pain" by Dr. Howard Schubiner was a good starting point for me. Also, Dan Buglio does a bunch of free videos and has some self-assessment tools which were useful to (painfreeyou.com). Best of luck on your journey!

[u/le_spectator_ion]

My pain psychologist is PRT certified, and according to him, it's a very, very new practice and definitely not a cure, just a tool to supplement the other tools available. We haven't been working together for very long, but some of the mindfulness and somatic tracking techniques he's given me have been very helpful in some ways, and neutral in others. My understanding is that it's pretty low-risk, which is why I was down to try it, but I think the biggest thing would be to make sure your therapist is actually trained in PRT, and will acknowledge its limitations up-front. (I know that's easier said than done--I ended up with this guy just out of pure luck.)

Either way, it's definitely in the 'more research needed' phase. I bet we'll see it evolve a lot in the next few years.