There is a growing need for effective treatment to help people undergoing chronic pain management who also develop a substance use disorder.  Some people get into trouble with their pain medications due to the potential addiction risk of opiates and the benzodiazepines. For some it is substance abuse but for others it becomes addiction.

It is important to understand what happens when someone has chronic pain and a coexisting addictive disorder. But before I get into that I want to give you some background information so you can better understand this overview. Today, there may be over 100 million people who are living with chronic pain. Current research estimates that 90% of people seeking medical treatment for chronic pain are prescribed opiates. Using a conservative 10% estimate means that there may be as many as 10 million people experiencing prescription drug abuse or addiction.

In 1996 I conducted research to begin developing the first clinical skills training in the Addiction Free Pain Management® treatment system. What I looked for was information on people undergoing chronic pain management who also experienced co-existing addiction. What I found was disturbing. There was nothing 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 anything that addressed someone who suffered with both conditions.

During my research I surveyed addiction and pain programs to find out what happened to these people when they tried to seek help. As I continued to explore I discovered that when they went into an addiction treatment program; the entire focus was on the addictive disorder. Unfortunately, the pain condition was not adequately addressed. The addiction programs really struggled with what to do about the chronic pain. On the other hand if that same person went into a pain clinic, the focus was on the chronic pain condition, the physiological pain. Unfortunately, the pain clinics struggled with what to do when people were acting out with the addiction.I soon realized that the focus needs to be on concurrent treatment for both chronic pain management and addiction recovery.

That is why I developed the Addiction Free Pain Management® System so treatment providers can learn how to effectively deal with both conditions concurrently.  What I also uncovered during my research, was that when the person had both conditions, there was an amplification, or a synergism, of their symptoms present that I coined the Addiction Pain Syndrome™. This syndrome has three zones—the addictive disorder zone, the pain disorder zone and a third zone I’ll discuss a little later.

The addictive disorder zone contains all the symptoms, problems, or consequences people experience when living with addiction. Someone in the pain disorder zone has a different set of problems, symptoms, or consequences. When a person has both conditions a synergistic effect happens and now we have the third zone the addiction pain syndrome zone.

The problem is that if the person goes into an addiction program 1/3 of the problem is dealt with and if they go to a pain clinic a different 1/3 of the problem is covered. Many of these programs cross-refer; which is great because now we are treating 2/3 of the problem. Thus I belive that it is important to use the Addiction Free Pain Management System® to treat all three zones concurrently using a collaborative, multidisciplinary approach.

To learn more about this synergistic problem please check out my article titled Understanding the Addiction Pain Syndrome™ that you can download for free on our Article page.

If you would like to see my upcoming trainings and especially to learn about my 20 hour (three days) Addiction-Free Pain Management® Certification Training on December 7-9, 2009 in Sacramento California designed to teach treatment strategies for people living with chronic pain and coexisting disorders including disorders including addiction please Click Here and scroll down to the December 7-9, 2009 for the description and how to sign up.

You can learn more about the Addiction-Free Pain Management® System at our website www.addiction-free.com. If you are working with people undergoing chronic pain management and want to learn how to develop a plan for managing their chronic pain and coexisting psychological disorders; including depression, addiction and other coexisting psychological disorders effectively; please consider my book Managing Pain and Coexisting Disorders: Using the Addiction-Free Pain Management® System. To purchase this book please Click Here.

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