IPM™ describe a an approach to the management of chronic pain that combines the best of conventional and complementary therapies. The goal of IPM is to employ the safest and most effective therapies in an attempt to treat the underlying causes of pain. IPM recognizes the complexity of health and illness by identifying multiple causes of disease and multiple interventions based on the physical, biochemical, psychological, social and spiritual aspects of health.

Non-Surgical Interventions

There are many effective non-surgical approaches to pain. These include

• Hot and cold therapies
• Joint adjustments--similar to Chiropractic adjustments, but with soft tissue relaxation done first and with a less forceful, gentler technique than many Chiropractors employ.
• Mesotherapy is an injection technique that has been studied in France for nearly 50 years for pain management. It involves injections just below the skin and is used with essentially all traditional and natural medicine treatments. It complements the other treatments, aiding in the healing of the patient. Mesotherapy is often used in conjunction with treatments such as Prolotherapy and Neural Therapy. Mesotherapy's other advantage is that it decreases the pain of these other injection techniques.
• Neural Therapy is a gentle healing technique developed in Germany that involves the injection of local anesthetics into autonomic ganglia (bundles of nerves), peripheral nerves, scars, glands, acupuncture points, trigger points, skin and other tissues.
• Prolotherapy, also called regenerative injection technique (RIT), because in orthopedic medicine it stimulates the body to create new connective tissue to strengthen joints and tendons. You can learn more about prolotherapy by reading the Prolotherapy FAQ and a summary of Prolotherapy Studies.
• Stretching exercises
• Trigger point injections are injections of a local anesthetic (usually procaine) into a focal point of extremely tight muscle, which causes the muscle to relax and relieves the pain.

However, if surgery is required, Dr. Neustadt has a large referral network of physicians with whom he works to ensure patients receive the best possible care.

Foundations of Health

In developing an integrative, customized approach to pain therapy, the starting point is a broad view of health and well being. The foundations of health include at least four elements:

• stress management
• proper diet and nutrition, occasionally based on biochemical testing
• regular exercise
• psychosocial support

"I no longer have the pain that I lived with for almost two years. His thorough and thoughtful approach to my unique health situation has transformed my life."