Joint (intra-articular) injections are used for both diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. For diagnosing a condition, your doctor will inject numbing medication into the affected joint and assess your pain relief and range of motion. Whether you have pain or feel pain relief will confirm or deny the joint as the source of the your pain. If pain relief is achieved, the joint is likely to be the source of the problem. Joint injections are also used to alleviate patients’ pain. Numbing medication, as well as time-release cortisone (depo-steroid), is injected into the joints. This combination of medications can reduce inflammation and provide long-term pain relief. Diagnostic and therapeutic joint injections can essentially be used at any joint of the body. If a patient complains of pain in the hip, shoulder, or any of the spinal joints, joint injection therapy may be beneficial based on the initial evaluation.