Bad Mood May Make Pain Worse

There are something like 60 MILLION chronic pain patients in the US who are un- and under-treated. Articles like this too often result in doctors taking them as confirmation that handing out SSRIs and other dangerous and ineffective drugs for chronic pain is effective. The physical link between "mood" and pain was noted over a decade ago - it exists because pain, especially chronic pain, passes through and is in part mediated by some of the same systems as depression. You still can NOT treat pain with only SSRIs, tricyclic antidepressants and other such drugs and expect useful results. At best, their lack of efficacy provides doctors with an excuse to label the patient an addict and fire him or her.

I've been in pain for over 26 years, and in that time I've been required to try almost everything on the market. Trying to forcibly cause a patient to be in a good mood is a great way to create a suicide or simply a very ill patient, probably because being artificially happy when in unending pain is an insane reaction. The base, the foundation medication MUST be opioids. The science behind their use is firm, well understood now, and these are also the safest as well as the most effective drugs on the market - for the patient. For the doctor, especially those practicing alone and treating a lot of pain patient, they are often professional suicide, as the DEA has found it can attack them with impunity, freeze or confiscate all assets (which are then added to the budget) and "take down another pill mill." Until doctors band together and DEMAND that cops get out of pain management, things will stay that way, and chronic pain will continue to be a death sentence.

Ian

Ian MacLeod of OR 4:39PM December 14, 2009