The tests add valuable information to what your doctor already knows from your history, physical exam, and imaging scans.įor example, during the physical exam the doctor looks for clues as to the underlying spinal problem (loss of muscle or “atrophy,” loss of reflexes, weakness, and/or areas of numbness). While an MRI or X-ray of the spine can provide clues about its structure, EMG and NCS tests provide data about how the muscles and nerves function. The presence or absence of injury can be helpful in determining further treatment.

The tests can help identify nerve injury or muscle disease such as carpal tunnel syndrome, a pinched spinal nerve, peripheral neuropathy, myositis, or ALS.

If there is nothing emotional feeding the pain then fine, you will know that for sure and you can start to rebuild a life that doesn't include pain.Electromyography (EMG) & nerve conduction studies (NCS) OverviewĮMG and NCS are tests that measure the electrical activity of the muscles and nerves of the body, usually to an arm or a leg. Accept the appointments, explore what is going on, and retrain your brain to realise that there is no physical pain so it can stop telling you there is. The best thing to do will be to go with this. My foot pain is always worse when my ex husband is around! Physical pain is actually processed in the same way in the brain as emotional pain, so often the two get intertwined, that is why they look at both sides of people now, the physical and the emotional, because one type of pain can be felt like another.Īnd we can get into a downward spiral where we start to worry and get anxious about the pain which will make the pain feel worse.

We have to retrain his brain to understand that it was just light touch, not something killing him! My son had this when he was younger, a light touch to the skin registered in his brain as pain. You have what is called chronic pain, and that sometimes happens when part of the brain just keeps on thinking it feels pain when there isn't a physical cause for it, or it misinterprets perception signals as pain when they are just touch. All pain is in the brain, not in our bodies, although one may argue that our brains are in our bodies. You are feeling pain, but the pain isn't coming from a physical problem, it is coming from your brain. You are not a complete fraud so you need to stop thinking that way.

Pain after emg