Sensitization

Wellness and recovery

May 24, 2026 · Dr. Andrew Vargas

Sensitization

Did you know that pain left untreated often gets harder to manage as time goes on?

When pain signals keep travelling between the nerves, spinal cord, and brain over a long period, the nervous system can grow steadily more sensitive. The medical term for this is central sensitization. Picture turning the volume knob on a radio further and further — crank the amplifier to 11 — and the body starts reacting more strongly to sensations that may not have hurt much before.

Over time, the things that once gave you freedom can start to feel hard, or out of reach altogether. Golf, tennis, gardening, running, travelling, playing with grandchildren, even pickleball may drift from pleasures into sources of frustration and worry.

That shift can be disheartening, particularly when it feels as though pain is shrinking your world.

Some treatments can make the sensitivity worse rather than better, long-term opioid use in certain patients among them. Even when something feels better in the moment, the underlying condition may still be deteriorating. This is why simply masking pain often is not enough, and can occasionally do harm. Treating pain well means understanding the whole person and dealing with what is actually driving it.

The encouraging part is that you have options, and you are not on your own with this.

At Ivy en Rose we think pain management should be about restoring quality of life, function, and hope. Every visit is a chance to reassess, adjust, and keep moving forward together. Often progress comes through small, steady changes: sleeping better, moving a little more, bringing inflammation down, building strength, lifting mood, or simply feeling able to join in again.

Small changes can look insignificant at first, but they may add up over time into real improvements in pain, function, and how well you feel overall.

Above all, we want our patients to know this: pain is not a failure on your part, and you do not have to face it by yourself.

Curatolo M.   Curr Neuropharmacol. 2024;22(1):15–22. doi:10.2174/1570159X20666221012112725.

Reference:

Central Sensitization and Pain: Pathophysiologic and Clinical Insights.