Author: Dr. Mary Abraham

Restless leg syndrome (RLS) also known as Willis-Ekbom disease, is a neurological disorder where the patient experiences restlessness and an uncomfortable feeling in the legs while resting and they get an irresistible urge to move around for it to subside. Some describe the sensation as insects crawling under the skin. It is more severe at…

A 47 year old professor in a renowned university presented with low back pain radiating to her legs and shoulder pain. She had lost her father recently and was going through the grieving process. Her emotional pain only added to her physical pain. Her pain was mainly due to muscle spasm and tightness in her…

A 57 year old psychotherapist presented with low back pain and right sciatica since 3 months which had affected her activities of daily living. Besides medicines like drugs to decrease nerve pain like gabapentin as well as analgesics, she had also tried physiotherapy and acupuncture with no relief. Her MRI of the spine revealed degenerative…

Charu Singh, a 50 year old doctor, who is an anaesthesiologist as well as a pain and palliative care physician, presented 10 months ago with pain in her right buttock along with shooting pain in her right leg since 1 year. It was associated with pins and needles sensation (tingling) in her right leg along…

A 48 year old gentleman developed low back pain after a fall from a bicycle 1 year ago. He was physically a very active person and would go for jogging, treks and was regular about going to the gym. But the back pain had limited his physical activities. It was particularly bad in the morning…

The year 2020 has been the year of the SARS Covid-19 pandemic.  It has been and still is an unprecedented situation that has transformed the lives of people all over the world. Besides the physical suffering it has inflicted, it has also affected the emotional, social, financial, and spiritual lives of people. The prolonged lockdown…

Back pain is a widely prevalent malady that is known to affect individuals the world over. It has no respect for age, gender or socio-economic status. At any point of time 15% of the world’s population can be afflicted with back pain. In fact, 65 to 80 % of people complain of at least one…

A 32 year old young man who hails from Mumbai and who was temporarily stationed in Delhi due to a work assignment, presented with pain at the back of the neck and right shoulder since 1 week. This was associated with a tingling sensation in the whole body and extreme fatigue which was affecting his…

A 27 year old young medical resident doctor presented in March this year with the complaints of recent onset of tinnitus in her right ear (ringing sound in the ear), unilateral deafness with a feeling of fullness (aural fullness) in the same ear and episodes of vertigo (spinning sensation). She had a recent episode of…

“Doctor, I have this pain all over my body since the last 5 years. It is crippling me. Painkillers don’t seem to help. I tried to do some exercises and walk a bit. But that only worsens the pain. I feel tired and stiff all the time even when I wake up in the morning.…

This is the story of a 89 years old retired officer from the Air Force who had lead a very active life till a couple of years ago. Steroid therapy for a skin problem had resulted in his sustaining fracture of rib as well as vertebra 2 years ago. This along with age-related degeneration of…

Pain is the most feared complication of cancer. Nearly 30-50% of patients with cancer suffer from pain. But what is really disturbing is that, in patients with terminal or advanced cancer, nearly 75 to 90% suffer from, sometimes unbearable pain. It has been estimated that approximately 80% of patients are diagnosed in the advanced stages…

Viral infections like Chikungunya, can often cause severe muscle pain, stiffness and joint pain that can be very painful and, often, crippling. But what is worse is that these pains and muscle spasm cause varying degrees of deformities particularly in the hands and feet. These can result in disabilities, which can persist long after the…