Pain Clinic Online

Specialist assessment and treatment of acute and long-term pain — evidence-based pain management, rehabilitation plans and follow-up.

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Appointments in Swedish, English and Arabic
Evidence-based care
Written plan after every visit

About the clinic

Pain medicine differs from most specialties in that the goal is rarely to remove the pain altogether, but to regain function and quality of life. Long-term pain also changes over time — the nervous system becomes more sensitive, and the pain can persist long after the original injury has healed. That means treatment which works for acute pain is often ineffective, or even harmful, in chronic pain.

We always build a concrete plan with realistic goals rather than simply making a diagnosis. We are also straight with you about what painkillers can and cannot achieve in long-term pain — expectations are often part of the problem.

Who we help

You with chronic pain
You with back and neck pain
You with nerve pain
You with joint pain
You with fibromyalgia
You with migraine and headache
You with muscle pain
You after an operation
You with work-related pain
You with sports injuries
You with sleep problems related to pain
You who would like a second opinion
You who need a rehabilitation plan

Symptoms

Conditions

Sciatica
Fibromyalgia
Neuropathic pain
Migraine and chronic headache
Neck and back pain
Osteoarthritis-related joint pain
Shoulder impingement
Chronic post-surgical pain
Sports injuries and overuse
Cancer-related pain

Services and examinations

A detailed pain history and symptom assessment
Review of previous investigations
Assessment of functional limitation
A medication review
Rehabilitation and activity advice
Interpretation of MRI, CT and X-ray reports

How it works

1Book and describe your main problem online.
2Upload previous results if you have them — test results, examinations, medication list.
3Video consultation — review of your history and targeted questions.
4A clear plan — next steps, any treatment, and a timeframe for follow-up.

What to prepare

A timeline of your symptoms (when it started, what triggers or relieves it)
Current medications and doses
Known allergies and previous illnesses
Previous test results and examinations, with dates if possible
Your three most important questions for the visit

Call your local emergency number immediately or go to the nearest emergency department if you have:

Pressing or cramping chest pain that doesn't ease within 15 minutes, or chest pain radiating to the arm, neck, jaw or back — particularly with breathlessness or cold sweats
Breathing difficulties
Sudden paralysis or weakness
Severe headache with neurological symptoms
Altered sensation in the genital area or around the anus, or loss of bladder/bowel control, together with back pain
Rapidly worsening symptoms

Digital care cannot replace emergency services. If unsure, seek care immediately.

Our doctors

See available doctors and book an appointment

Frequently asked questions

When should I seek a pain assessment?

If the pain affects everyday life, sleep or function over several weeks.

Can you interpret previous investigations?

Yes.

Can every pain condition be assessed digitally?

Many can, but some require a physical examination.

Do I need tests before the appointment?

Not always — we will guide you on what is needed.

Do you offer second opinions?

Yes, on diagnoses, treatments and investigations.

Can you help with a rehabilitation plan?

Yes.

What do I do about sudden paralysis, altered sensation in the genital area, or loss of bladder or bowel control?

Seek emergency care immediately — see the safety box.

Will the pain ever go away completely?

In long-term pain the goal is usually considerably better function and quality of life rather than being entirely pain-free — and that is a goal which is often reachable.

Is it dangerous to move when it hurts?

In most long-term pain conditions, adapted movement is treatment, not harm. We help you find the right level.

Can you prescribe painkillers?

Yes, where it is medically appropriate. In long-term pain, though, medication is rarely the whole answer — we go through what works best for your particular condition.

Fifteen common conditions

Sciatica

Typical age: Adults; most common between 30 and 50.
Background: Irritation of, or pressure on, the sciatic nerve.
Symptoms: Pain radiating from the back or buttock down into the leg.
What the doctor looks for: The pattern of radiation and any neurological signs.
Investigations: Clinical assessment, sometimes an MRI.
Diagnosis: The clinical picture, with or without imaging findings.
Management: Pain relief, activity, rarely surgery.
Follow-up: If there is no improvement.
Prognosis: Good; most people improve within weeks.
What you can do yourself: Keep moving. Walking is better than bed rest, even when it hurts.
When should you book?: For symptoms lasting more than two weeks. For weakness, altered sensation in the genital area or around the anus, or bladder or bowel involvement — emergency care.

Altered sensation in the genital area or around the anus, or loss of bladder or bowel control, alongside back pain, is an emergency — see the safety box.

Fibromyalgia

Typical age: More common in middle-aged women.
Background: A chronic pain syndrome with no clear structural cause.
Symptoms: Widespread pain, fatigue, sleep problems.
What the doctor looks for: Exclusion of other causes.
Investigations: The clinical picture, possibly blood tests.
Diagnosis: The clinical picture after other causes are ruled out.
Management: Multimodal — activity and pain management.
Follow-up: As needed.
Prognosis: Chronic, but manageable with the right support.
What you can do yourself: Start activity low and increase very slowly — increasing too fast causes setbacks.
When should you book?: For widespread pain lasting more than three months.

Neuropathic pain

Typical age: All adult ages.
Background: Pain caused by nerve damage or nerve involvement.
Symptoms: Burning or stabbing pain.
What the doctor looks for: The distribution, and the underlying cause.
Investigations: History, sometimes further investigation.
Diagnosis: The clinical picture.
Management: Targeted pain treatment.
Follow-up: According to the effect.
Prognosis: Varies with the cause.
What you can do yourself: Ordinary painkillers often work poorly for nerve pain — that does not mean nothing helps, but that different medicines are needed.
When should you book?: For burning or stabbing pain that has lasted more than a month.

Migraine and chronic headache

Typical age: All adult ages.
Background: Recurrent headache that affects everyday life.
Symptoms: Throbbing or pressing headache.
What the doctor looks for: The pattern and the frequency.
Investigations: The clinical picture.
Diagnosis: The clinical picture.
Management: Acute and preventive treatment.
Follow-up: According to symptom control.
Prognosis: Good with the right management.
What you can do yourself: Count your days with painkillers — more than ten a month can cause medication-overuse headache.
When should you book?: For headache on more than four days a month.

Neck and back pain (mechanical)

Typical age: All adult ages.
Background: Common with stress, poor ergonomics or degenerative changes.
Symptoms: Stiffness, pain on movement.
What the doctor looks for: The movement pattern.
Investigations: Clinical assessment.
Diagnosis: The clinical picture.
Management: Movement exercises, ergonomic advice.
Follow-up: If problems persist.
Prognosis: Good.
What you can do yourself: Keep moving and review your working posture; bed rest prolongs the course.
When should you book?: For problems lasting more than six weeks, or for radiating pain with numbness.

Osteoarthritis-related joint pain

Typical age: More common with increasing age.
Background: Cartilage changes in the joints.
Symptoms: Joint pain and stiffness.
What the doctor looks for: The symptom pattern.
Investigations: The clinical picture, sometimes an X-ray.
Diagnosis: The clinical picture, with or without imaging findings.
Management: Activity, pain relief.
Follow-up: Regular.
Prognosis: Chronic but manageable.
What you can do yourself: Strength training around the joint reduces the pain more than resting does.
When should you book?: When the pain affects sleep or everyday functioning.

Shoulder impingement

Typical age: Adults.
Background: Can be due to impingement, inflammation or overuse.
Symptoms: Pain on lifting the arm.
What the doctor looks for: The movement pattern.
Investigations: Clinical assessment.
Diagnosis: The clinical picture.
Management: Physiotherapy, pain relief.
Follow-up: According to the course.
Prognosis: Good with rehabilitation.
What you can do yourself: Avoid repeated movements above shoulder height, but keep the shoulder moving within the pain-free range.
When should you book?: For problems lasting more than four weeks.

Chronic post-surgical pain

Typical age: All adult ages.
Background: Long-term pain that persists after a surgical procedure.
Symptoms: Pain in the operated area, sometimes radiating.
What the doctor looks for: The link to the procedure, and the time course.
Investigations: A review of the operation notes and previous care.
Diagnosis: The clinical picture.
Management: Multimodal pain treatment.
Follow-up: Regular.
Prognosis: Varies; it can improve with the right management.
What you can do yourself: Note whether the pain is burning or stabbing — that points to a nerve component and affects the choice of treatment.
When should you book?: For pain that persists more than three months after an operation.

Sports injuries and overuse

Typical age: All ages; more common in active people.
Background: Injuries to muscles, joints and ligaments during training.
Symptoms: Pain, swelling, reduced function.
What the doctor looks for: The mechanism of injury.
Investigations: Clinical assessment.
Diagnosis: The clinical picture.
Management: Rest, gradual return, rehabilitation.
Follow-up: According to the course.
Prognosis: Good with the right rehabilitation.
What you can do yourself: Reduce the load rather than stopping altogether, then increase by no more than ten per cent a week.
When should you book?: For problems lasting more than three weeks despite a reduced load.

Cancer-related pain

Typical age: All adult ages.
Background: Pain linked to cancer or to its treatment.
Symptoms: Vary with the site and the cause.
What the doctor looks for: The pain pattern and the link to treatment.
Investigations: A review of the oncology care history.
Diagnosis: According to the underlying disease.
Management: According to the specialist plan, often in consultation with oncology care.
Follow-up: Close, according to an individual plan.
Prognosis: Varies; good symptom relief is often achievable.
What you can do yourself: Take the pain relief regularly as prescribed, not only when you need it — continuous dosing works considerably better.
When should you book?: For inadequate pain relief, wherever you are in your treatment.

When pain becomes long-term — what happens in the body

Typical age: All adult ages.
Background: In long-term pain the nervous system changes — the pain signals are amplified and the threshold is lowered, so the pain can persist or even increase although the tissue has healed. It is a physiological phenomenon, not something imagined, and understanding it is often a precondition for treatment to work.
Common symptoms: Pain persisting beyond three months, often with increased sensitivity even to light touch.
What the doctor looks for: Whether the pain is in proportion to the findings, and whether there are signs of central sensitisation.
Investigations: The work-up has often already been done — further investigations rarely add anything in established chronic pain.
How the assessment is made: Through pain analysis rather than new imaging.
Management: Multimodal — physical activity, pain management, sometimes medication directed at the nervous system's hypersensitivity.
Follow-up: Regular.
Risk factors to know: Long-standing untreated acute pain, lack of sleep, depression, a high level of stress, fear of movement.
Common misconception: That persisting pain means something was missed in the work-up. In chronic pain the pain system itself is the problem — further investigations rarely find anything new.
What you can do yourself: Understanding the mechanism often reduces the experience of pain in itself — one of the few documented findings in pain treatment.
When should you book?: For pain lasting more than three months, particularly if you have felt dismissed before.
Prognosis: Considerable improvement in function is possible, even where the pain does not disappear completely.

Medication-overuse headache

Typical age: All adult ages; more common in women.
Background: One of the most common and most overlooked pain conditions. Regular use of painkillers for headache can paradoxically cause daily headache — and because the patient then takes more painkillers, the problem is reinforced. Many have lived with this for years without knowing that the treatment is the cause.
Common symptoms: Daily or near-daily headache, often worst in the morning, temporarily eased by painkillers.
What the doctor looks for: The number of days a month with painkillers — more than ten days (or fifteen for some preparations) is the limit.
Investigations: A headache diary recording medication use.
How the diagnosis is made: Through the link between medication use and headache frequency.
Management: Tapering or stopping the drug that is causing it — the symptoms get temporarily worse before they get better.
Follow-up: Close during the withdrawal phase.
Risk factors to know: Underlying migraine, easy access to over-the-counter painkillers, combination preparations, opioids.
Common misconception: That over-the-counter medicines cannot cause this. Ordinary over-the-counter painkillers are the most common cause.
What you can do yourself: Count your medication days a month in a calendar — most people underestimate the number considerably.
When should you book?: For daily headache, or if you take painkillers on more than ten days a month.
Prognosis: Good — most people are considerably better after stopping, but it takes a few weeks.

Pain and sleep

Typical age: All adult ages.
Background: Pain disturbs sleep, and poor sleep lowers the pain threshold — a documented vicious circle where improvement in one direction often brings improvement in the other. Treating the sleep is therefore one of the most effective measures in long-term pain, even though it often comes last.
Common symptoms: Difficulty falling asleep because of pain, waking during the night, unrefreshing sleep, and worse pain the following day.
What the doctor looks for: Whether the lack of sleep is primary or secondary to the pain, and whether there is a treatable sleep disorder.
Investigations: A sleep diary alongside a pain diary.
How the assessment is made: By looking at the link between sleep quality and pain level over time.
Management: Sleep treatment (CBT-I works best), optimised pain relief at night, adapted activity during the day.
Follow-up: After treatment has started.
Risk factors to know: Irregular sleeping hours, caffeine, alcohol used as a sleep aid, opioids (which worsen sleep quality despite the pain relief), depression.
Common misconception: That sleep automatically improves once the pain is treated. The sleep disturbance often becomes independent and needs treating in its own right.
What you can do yourself: Keep a pain diary and a sleep diary side by side for two weeks — the link almost always becomes clear and gives you something concrete to work from.
When should you book?: When the pain regularly disturbs your sleep.
Prognosis: Good — better sleep often gives a measurable reduction in pain.

Opioids — benefits, risks and tapering

Typical age: All adult ages.
Background: Opioids work well for acute and cancer-related pain, but in long-term non-cancer pain the benefit is usually limited while the risks remain — tolerance, dependence, and paradoxically increased sensitivity to pain. Many people have been on opioids for a long time without the benefit ever being evaluated, and tapering is then often the right way, but it needs support.
Common symptoms: During ongoing treatment: fatigue, constipation, a reduced effect over time.
What the doctor looks for: The length of treatment, the dose, and actual improvement in function (not just a pain score).
Investigations: A review of the treatment history and the level of function.
How the assessment is made: By weighing the real gain in function against the risks.
Management: Where the benefit is insufficient: a structured, slow taper with support — never abruptly.
Follow-up: Close during the taper.
Risk factors to know: High doses, long-term treatment, benzodiazepines taken at the same time (a dangerous combination), previous problems with dependence.
Common misconception: That tapering means being left without pain relief. Many people paradoxically have less pain after tapering, because opioid-induced sensitivity to pain decreases.
What you can do yourself: Never stop abruptly — withdrawal can be serious. Raise it with your doctor instead.
When should you book?: For questions about long-term opioid treatment, or if you want to discuss tapering.
Prognosis: Good with a structured taper and alternative treatment.

Pain that isn't taken seriously

Typical age: All adult ages; it affects women and people with long-term conditions more often.
Background: Many people with long-term pain have experienced not being believed — particularly when investigations have been normal. That leads patients to stop seeking care, which in turn makes both the pain and their function worse. Normal findings do not rule out treatable pain; they only rule out certain causes.
Common symptoms: Long-term pain without objective findings, often with frustration and low mood on top.
What the doctor looks for: What has already been investigated, and what can actually be treated regardless of what the findings showed.
Investigations: A review of previous investigations rather than new tests.
How the assessment is made: Starting from the position that the pain is real and that the goal is function, not finding an abnormality.
Management: Multimodal pain treatment.
Follow-up: Regular — continuity is in itself part of the treatment.
Risk factors to know: Many normal investigations, previously being dismissed, depression at the same time.
Common misconception: That normal investigations mean the pain does not exist or cannot be treated. Neither is true.
What you can do yourself: Bring a summary of what has already been investigated — it means the appointment can be about treatment instead of starting over.
When should you book?: When you have long-term pain and feel you have not got any further in the healthcare system.
Prognosis: Good improvement in function is possible with the right approach.

Contact

Book appointment info@medix7.com

The information on this page is general patient information and does not replace an individual medical assessment. Digital care has limitations and cannot handle emergencies — see the emergency box above. If you are unsure, contact healthcare services or your local emergency number.

About this content

This information draws on established Swedish clinical sources, primarily 1177 Vårdguiden, Internetmedicin and Läkemedelsboken. It is general patient information and does not replace individual medical assessment.