SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – Children who are suffering from chronic pain now have a different option for treatment in the Bay Area.
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For children with conditions from migraines to joint pain, the options can often be limited.
"Because we have learned that medications and interventions and surgery are pretty much useless," said Dr. Stefan Friedrichsdorf, Medical Director of UCSF's new Stad Center for Pediatric Pain, Palliative and Integrative Medicine. "What's really effective to get those kids, those teenagers back to normal life is working with physical therapy, with exercise, teaching them integrative modalities such as deep breathing or hypnosis or progressive muscle relaxation."
Friedrichsdorf was a guest on KCBS Radio's "As Prescribed" on Thursday.
Doctors at the center use holistic approaches to help kids who are often missing school and activities because they are in so much pain.
"If we don't help them as children, those kids turn out to be adults with chronic pain, with anxiety, with depression," Friedrichsdorf added.
He said alternative approaches do help, but they're not commonly used — largely because insurance doesn't cover the treatments.
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