*****FROM ABC NEWS MEDICAL UNIT*****
Hi tlsimon1964 and thank you for your question. Here is an answer to your question from Joshua Prager, M.D., M.S., Director, Center for the Rehabilitation of Pain Syndromes (CRPS) at UCLA Medical Plaza; Clinical Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology and Internal Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA:
There are several keys to treatment of CRPS (RSD). Interdisciplinary care including physical therapy is essential. Single modality therapy rarely is successful alone.
No matter what form of interdisciplinary care is used physical therapy is usually the mainstay of treatment. CRPS is a disease in which the principle of "use or or lose it" usually apllies.
For severe or long standing cases there are more aggressive thearpies that can be successful.
It is best to treat with someone who has exrtensive experience with diagnosis and treatment of the syndrome and has multiple modalities of treatment available. The disease is not considered "cured" after successful treatment but is in full or parital remission.