According to researched published in Pain Physician Journal (2006), 90 percent of people in the US receiving treatment for pain management are prescribed opiate medication.  Of that number 9 percent to 41 percent had opiate abuse/addiction problems.  It is important to remember that for people with a genetic or personal history of an addictive disorder, any psychoactive medication could be problematic.  Unfortunately, there may be times when opiate (or opioid) medication management is needed, but there are risks.  Please see the information below.

Risks of Opioid Medication Management

1. Opioids have been shown to effectively reduce cancer and acute pain conditions and they can also share a role in the management of chronic pain.
2. Opioids may be inappropriate for patients with substance use disorders or a history of those problems.  If any psychoactive medications are used, providers must take special precautions. 
3. Concerns about side effects, such as functional impairment and physical inactivity, as well as concerns about physical or psychological dependence, must be taken into consideration when using Opioids for chronic pain management.
4. Physical dependence is a physiological adaptation to a substance, defined by a growing tolerance for its effects and/or withdrawal symptoms when use is reduced or ends. 
5. Psychological dependence (often called addiction) is a primary, chronic, neurobiological disease with genetic, psychosocial, and environmental factors influencing its development and manifestations. 
6. Psychological dependence may occur with or without physical dependence and is conceptually characterized by impaired control over drug use, compulsive use, continued use despite harm, and craving for the psychic effects of the drug.
7. What appears to be psychological dependence may be due to pain that is under treated.  This is also known as Pseudoaddiction. 

If you want to learn more about potential medication problems with chronic pain management please check out our website at www.addiction-free.com and go to our Publications page to check out my APM Module Two: Examining Your Potential Medication Management Problems that includes a Red Flags checklist for prescription medication problems. You can also check out our Ariticles page to download my free articles including Managing Pain Medication in Recovery.

I believe it is important for people living with chronic pain to understand that sometimes what you most fear your actually create.  When you live with chronic pain you hurt.  Doing certain things can make you hurt worse.  So you come to believe that these things will always cause you to hurt.   In other words, you associate those things with pain.  You believe that every time you do those things, you will have pain.  Because you believe that you are going to hurt, you can actually activate the physiological pain system just by thinking about doing something that you believe will cause you to hurt.  This is called anticipatory pain. 

Once the physical pain system is activated, the anticipatory pain reaction can actually make your pain symptoms worse.  Whenever you feel the pain, you interpret it in a way that makes it worse.  You start thinking about the pain in a way that actually makes it worse.  You tell yourself that the pain is “awful and terrible,” and that “I can’t handle the pain.”  You convince yourself that “it’s hopeless, I’ll always hurt, and there’s nothing I can do about it.” 

This way of thinking causes you to develop emotional reactions that further intensify or amplify the pain response.  The increased perception of pain causes you to keep changing your behavior in ways that create even more unnecessary limitations and more emotional discomfort.  This can make you feel trapped in a progressive cycle of disability.  If you want to learn how to cope with this problem please download my free article Coping with Anticipatory Pain.

If you want to learn more about chronic pain management please check out our website at www.addiction-free.com and go to our Publications page to check out my new book Managing Pain and Coexisting Disorders: Using the Addiction-Free Pain Management® System.  You can also check out our Ariticles page to download my other free articles.

If I wasn’t conducting a training in Philledelphia next week I’d be attending the Michigan Head-Pain & Neurological Institute’s (MHNI) 10th Annual Headache and Pain Conference.  This year’s line up is exceptional as well as the topics they’ll be covering. 

The conference states that pain affects more Americans than diabetes, heart disease and cancer combined. According to the National Centers for Health Statistics, pain affects 76.2 million people.  The conference will be covering the latest research into creating more effective treatment outcomes for people suffering with pain focuses on gender differences, the detrimental impact of certain medications, and nerve and magnetic stimulation.

Please find below some of the interesting information on the impact of pain from a press release by the conference organizers.

Pain is a serious issue in the US

1. More than one-quarter of adult Americans report a problem with pain that persisted for more than 24 hours in duration.
2. More women than men reported that they were in pain.
3. 42% of adults report pain that lasted longer than one year.
4. About 1.2 million Michigan adults experience ongoing chronic pain.
5. According to the National Institutes of Health, the annual cost of chronic pain in the United States, including healthcare expenses, lost  income, and lost productivity, is estimated to be $100 billion.
6. According to the National Sleep Foundation, an estimated 20 percent of American adults (42 million people) report that pain or physical discomfort disrupts their sleep a few nights a week or more.
7. Low back pain is the most common (27 percent), followed by severe headache or migraine pain (15 percent), neck pain (15 percent) and facial ache or pain (4 percent).

If you want to learn more about chronic pain management please check out our website at www.addiction-free.com and go to our Publications page to check out my new book Managing Pain and Coexisting Disorders: Using the Addiction-Free Pain Management® System.  You can also check out our Ariticles page to download my free articles.