Should I get a Steroid injection for my pain?

Should I get a Steroid injection for my pain?

Steroid injections are a commonly used procedure in the NHS system to help patients with different types of pains, the concept of an the injection is to help reduce pain and inflammation by releasing a corticosteroid saline solution in to the affected site.

Lot of my Chandlers Ford clients ask whether they should consider taking a steroid injection to help with their pain.

Ill be honest, my usual answer to this question is No, however there of course are exceptions.

Here below I outline my reasons for primarily being against the use of steroid injections.

1.       It doesn’t fix the underlying cause of the problem

Inflammation is usually there for a reason, due to an underlying problem that needs diagnosis and correction through manual techniques or exercise management. I find that a CS injection can just be a mask and not fix the underlying issues causing the inflammation to be present.

2.       Short term benefits but no long term improvement.

Based on the above point, by not fixing the underlying problem, there is usually limited if any long term benefit. Studies have shown great short term benefit but this usually wears off with studies showing no long term benefit of CS injections on pain levels.

3.       Its an invasive procedure carrying risk

A corticosteroid injection involves a foreign substance being injected in to the body. As a Chiropractor, we believe and adopt a philosophy of non-invasive care and treatment without the intervention of drugs, injections and surgery when appropriate. I personally would prefer to exhaust non-invasive options of treatment before injecting a foreign substance in to my body, definitely if the injection is not performed under a guided ultrasound.

On the Contrary, when we have exhausted all treatment options, a Corticosteroid injection is the logical next step to achieve the correct road to recovery and I have had clients after failure to fully correct under Chiropractic care, use Corticosteroid injections and have had a pain reduction with long term benefit.

To conclude, “should I get a steroid injection for my pain”- only if you have tried all other forms of treatment to help relieve the pain and consider that with the injection, it has the potential to only provide a short term relief and improvement