Many people with chronic pain frequently become depressed due to living with under-treated or mistreated pain symptoms. This process starts when your thinking and emotions become problematic. This is when your thinking becomes irrational or dysfunctional and you start mismanaging your feelings; you often have urges to indulge in self-defeating, impulsive or compulsive behaviors to cope with your depression. This in turn affects your relationships with others.

There are several types of clinical depression that involve disturbances in mood, concentration, self-confidence, sleep, appetite, activity and behavior as well as disruptions in friendships, family, work and/or school. A clinical depression is different than the experiences of sadness, disappointment and grief familiar to everyone, which sometimes makes it difficult to determine when professional help is necessary. The following information is intended to provide you with a brief overview of the symptoms, causes, and treatment of clinical depression and offers you tools to assess the severity of any symptoms that you may be experiencing to determine whether you should consider seeking professional help for treating your depression at this time.

One of the biggest problems in treating depression in people with chronic pain is missing the diagnosis. This occurs for two reasons: (1) the person in chronic pain often does not realize he or she is also suffering from a major depression; and (2) the doctor is not looking for it. People living with chronic pain will often define their problem as strictly medical and related to the pain.  Therefore, being open to explore if depression is present and being willing to develop a treatment strategy becomes a crucial component of an effective pain management treatment plan.

If symptoms related to a depressive condition are interfering with your ability to do routine, day-to-day activities, then you should consider seeking professional help.  There are currently a variety of highly effective interventions available for the treatment of depression.  The majority of depressive conditions can be treated with either psychotherapy (especially cognitive behavioral therapy) or medication but research studies have indicated that a combination of these interventions is usually the most effective form of treatment.  There are also some types of depression that have a seasonal patterning where intensive Full Spectrum Lighting therapy is often effective in reducing symptoms.  It should be emphasized that the majority of depressive conditions can be treated without hospitalization.

Medication Plus Psychotherapy

Is Considered the Best Treatment

If you want to learn more about pain management please check out our website at www.addiction-free.com.  You can also find my article The Role of Clincial Depression in Pain Management that you can download for free on our Ariticles page or go to our Publications page to learn about my Addiction-Free Pain Management® books.