In 1996 I conducted research to begin developing the first clinical skills training for Addiction Free Pain Management®.  What I looked for was information on people who had chronic pain and co-existing addiction.  What I found was disturbing.  There wasn’t much there! 

What I did find was a large amount of data on people with addiction and an abundance of information about people who had chronic pain.  But I couldn’t find much that addressed someone who suffered with both conditions. 

During my research I also surveyed addiction and pain programs to find out what happened to these people when they tried to seek help.  What I discovered was when they went into an addiction treatment program the entire focus was on the addictive disorder.  Unfortunately, their pain was not adequately addressed.  The addiction programs really struggled with what to do about the chronic pain. 

Now if that same person went into a pain clinic, the entire focus was on the chronic pain, the physiological pain.  On the other hand, the pain clinics struggled with what to do when people were acting out with the addiction.  I realized that the focus needs to be on concurrent treatment for both pain and addiction. 

The Addiction-Pain Syndrome™

Addiction treatment programs cover about a third of the problem (the Addictive Disorder Zone) when dealing with a chronic pain patient.  The pain clinics cover a different third of the problem (the Pain Disorder Zone).  Each of the above modalities when implemented independently misses about two thirds of the problem.

Sometimes addiction treatment centers recognize the need to refer a patient to a pain specialist or the pain clinics refer a patient to an addiction specialist.  This is definitely an improvement.  Now about two thirds of the patient’s needs are being addressed (both the Addictive Disorder Zone and the Pain Disorder Zone).  But what about the third zone?

The center area is the Addiction Pain Syndrome Zone.  This is why I developed the Addiction-Free Pain Management® (APM) system so treatment providers can learn how to effectively deal with both conditions concurrently.

APM™ concurrently addresses the addictive disorder, the pain disorder, and the addiction pain syndrome.  All three zones are addressed—The Addictive Disorder Zone, the Pain Disorder Zone, and the Addiction Pain Syndrome Zone.

Synergistic Symptoms

The negative consequences more than double when patients experience both addictive disorders and pain disorders.  Addictive disorders lead to one universe of biopsychosocial problems, and the pain disorders lead to a different set of problems.  1 + 1 no longer equals 2, rather 1+ 1 now equals 3 or more.  This is called synergism.  Synergism is a condition where the combined action is greater in total effect than the sum of the individual effects.

Think about the type of problems or symptoms you will experience in the Addictive Disorder Zone.  Now think about those in the Pain Disorder Zone.  When these two zones are added together, we have the sum of both zones plus a new zone—the Addiction Pain Syndrome Zone.  A new universe of symptoms occurs due to the synergistic effect.

To have successful treatment outcomes this phenomenon must be addressed through a specialized treatment approach—a Synergistic Treatment System. APM™ addresses the addictive disorder, the pain disorder, and the addiction pain syndrome.

Knowledge is power. Once people know what is really going on with their body and mind they can start to take action to effectively manage their pain. In fact, they need to stop seeing pain as their enemy and see it as their friend.  I know this is much easier said than done.

Many patients look at me like I am crazy when I tell them they must make peace with their pain and that pain is their friend.  Some even tell me—very strongly—they couldn’t buy that, but nevertheless it is true.  It is very important for patients to move out of victim mode and empower themselves by developing a pain management and chemical dependency recovery program.  If they are willing to do the work recovery is not only possible but much more preferable than how they had been living.

To listen to a recent radio interview I did conducted by Mary Woods for her program One Hour at a Time please Click Here to go to this interview.

You can learn more about the Addiction-Free Pain Management® System at our website www.addiction-free.com. If you are working with people in chronic pain and want to learn how to develop a plan for managing their pain and medication effectively go to our Publications page and check out my book the Managing Pain and Coexisting Disorders: Using the Addiction-Free Pain Management® System. To purchase this book please Click Here.

We have a busy fall schedule for upcoming trainings that you can check out on our Calendar page.

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