Wednesday, October 16, 2024

Chronic Pain and Mental Health: A Link That Creates Challenges

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Do you personally know someone who lives with chronic pain? If so, have you noticed that person’s outlook on life is not always rosy? You would not be the first. Doctors and patients alike notice it because there is an intrinsic link between chronic pain and mental health. It is a link that creates treatment challenges for doctors.

The link between mental health and chronic pain is part of the motivation for applying integrative healthcare to pain management. It is what they do at KindlyMD clinics throughout Utah. According to KindlyMD officials, they believe the integrative approach is the best way to help patients living with chronic pain.

More About Chronic Pain

Chronic pain is generally defined as pain that occurs either daily or almost daily for three months or longer. Some cases of chronic pain have known causes. For example, a back injury can lead to a lifetime of paying. But other cases of chronic pain are nonspecific. This is to say that no root cause has been identified.

The key factor in chronic pain is that it persists for a length of time. By contrast, acute pain is temporary in nature. It generally lasts no longer than one month and has a defined root cause. As that root cause is managed, the body heals and the pain gradually subsides.

Chronic Pain and Depression

Chronic pain can be a contributing factor in clinical depression. In fact, an estimated 35% of chronic pain patients also experience depression at some point. A person already experiencing depression at the onset of chronic pain often discovers that the depression is made worse.

What is it all about? First and foremost is the stress of trying to manage chronic pain. When pain persists, it can literally be maddening. A patient can experience tremendous stress just trying to get a handle on pain well enough to take the edge off. If pain persists long enough, additional stress can be triggered by thoughts of never finding adequate relief.

Additional factors linking chronic pain and depression include:

  • Reduced physical activity
  • Loss a physical function
  • Social isolation
  • Reduced quality of life

All these things combined can rob a person of any hope of a better future. Where there is no hope, the likelihood of depression goes way up. Along with that depression can be a healthy dose of anxiety.

A Lack of Sleep Doesn’t Help

Chronic pain also impacts sleep. Unfortunately, not getting enough quality sleep has a negative effect on a person’s mental and physical health. Insufficient sleep leads to depression and anxiety. Greater depression and anxiety can exacerbate pain. Then pain further interrupts sleep.

The end result is a continual cycle in which each problem feeds off the other two. As things spiral further out of control, depression and anxiety only get worse.

Treating With Integrative Medicine

Getting a handle on chronic pain and depression requires treating the whole person rather than just one condition. This is where KindlyMD’s integrative approach proves invaluable. Integrative healthcare focuses on treating the whole person rather than just symptoms or single conditions.

It combines traditional treatments and complementary therapies across multiple disciplines including pharmacology, psychotherapy, and physiotherapy. The ultimate goal is to treat the patient in body, mind, and spirit so as to break the cycle and cut the link between pain and depression.

That link is a strong one. It is difficult to cut. But difficult does not necessarily mean impossible. Integrative care is gradually proving itself to be the best way to answer the challenges of treating chronic pain and depression simultaneously.

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