In 1996 I conducted research to begin developing the first clinical skills training for Addiction Free Pain Management® System. What I looked for was information on people who had chronic pain and 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. What I did discover was the Addiction Pain Syndrome™ and below is a brief overview.

When someone develops an addictive disorder there are many identifiable symptoms, or negative consequences as a result of the addiction that impact them biologically, psychologically, socially and spiritually. During my research I 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 addictive disorder zone—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.

When someone is living with chronic pain and it is not managed appropriately they develop a pain disorder that impacts them biologically, psychologically, socially, and spiritually. Some of these negative consequences are similar to those who develop an addictive disorder but they are different. Now if that person went into a pain clinic, the entire focus was on the chronic pain, the physiological or biological pain. On the other hand, the pain clinics struggled with what to do when people were acting out with the addiction.

Historically, pain disorders and addictive disorders have been treated as separate issues. Pain clinics have had great success in treating chronic pain conditions. Addiction treatment centers have also had success in treating addictive disorders. However, both modalities struggle when the patient is suffering from both conditions. 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 those modalities 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 a chemical dependency 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?

This is the Addiction Pain Syndrome™ zone. This is why we developed the Addiction-Free Pain Management® (APM) System. This system 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.

To learn more about effective chronic pain management check out my article The Need for Multidisciplinary Chronic Pain Management that you can download for free on our Article page.

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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