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.

To read the September Issues of Chronic Pain Solutions Newsletter please Click here. If you want to sign up for the newsletter, please Click here and input your name and email address. You will then recieve an autoresponse email that you need to reply to in order to finalize enrollment.

We live in a quick fix society.  When something goes wrong we look for the fastest way to remedy the situation.  When we have a headache we “pop a pill” and the problem is solved.  If you watched any amount of TV the past few years you may have noticed a significant increase in commercials hyping prescription medication.  Many people are demanding specific medications that they saw on TV with the mistaken belief that—if it’s advertised on TV it much be safe; for example the commercials advertising Lunesta, a sleep medication.  After all how can such a cute butterfly be dangerous?

So it’s not surprising when our back starts hurting again using medication to escape from the pain is our primary concern.  Our medical system is designed for crisis, or symptom management.  Rarely do we look for the underlying reasons for our headache or back pain.  Using the “Band-Aid” approach of taking a pill seems quicker, cheaper, and easier—but is it really?

What if the pain condition is a long lasting or chronic condition?  In that instance using certain types of pain medication—even over-the-counter (OTC) medications— over long periods of time can be problematic.  One of the major OTC pain medications used by millions of Americans is Tylenol (acetaminophen).  We know that a major problem with this medication is damage to the liver.  The National Hospital Discharge Survey (NHDS) indicates that there is an average of 26,256 hospitalizations per year related to acetaminophen overdoses.  All medications have side effects, so determining a cost-benefit analysis is crucial. 

To effectively manage a pain condition, while avoiding the risk of addiction, it is very important to understand exactly what he or she is experiencing.  When people are in pain they experience both physical and psychological symptoms.  To understand the language of pain, we must learn to listen to how the pain echoes and reverberates between the physical, psychological, and social dimensions of the human condition. Pain is truly a total human experience that affects all aspects of human functioning.

The easiest way to understand pain is to recognize that every time we feel pain our body is attempting to tell us that something is wrong.  Pain sensations are critical to human survival.  Without pain we would have no way of knowing that something was wrong with our body.  So without pain we would be unable to take action to correct the problem or situation that is causing the pain.  There are also two types of pain that need to be understood: acute and chronic.

When medication does not eliminate the pain or address the lifestyle losses the person is experiencing, the result is usually irrational thinking and uncomfortable emotions—in other words, suffering.  Some conditions—because they are terminal or because they are likely to result in significant disability—may also evoke amplified pain symptoms because of the psychological components of the illness or injury.

Although managing pain without pills is a very desirable goal, in some cases there needs to be an “appropriate” medication management plan.  This plan should be a collaborative process with a professional who understands the biopsychosocial nature of pain and the very real risks of dependency or addiction.  In addition to the psychological treatment plan and the medication management plan we need to explore non-pharmacological modalities such as acupuncture, chiropractic, massage therapy, hydrotherapy, biofeedback, etc.  As you can see this is anything but a “quick fix.”

To understand how to develop an effective chronic pain management plan check out my article The Need for Multidisciplinary Chronic Pain Treatment that you can download for free on our Ariticles page.

You can learn more about the Addiction-Free Pain Management® System at our website www.addiction-free.com. If you are in recovery and want to learn how to develop a plan for managing your pain and medication effectively go to our Publications page and check out my book the Addiction-Free Pain Management® Recovery Guide: Managing Pain and Medication in Recovery. 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.

To read the September Issues of Chronic Pain Solutions Newsletter please click here. If you want to sign up for the newsletter, please click here and input your name and email address. You will then recieve an autoresponse email that you need to reply to in order to finalize enrollment.

I’ve published research information in the past about gender differences in pain management that you can review on our Research Page and look for my report titled Gender and Pain.  Today I ran across a report about a research study that was published in the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, August 2008.  I am posting excerpts from that article below.  If you want to read the entire article please Click Here .

Dr. Kristine A. Donovan, of the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute in Tampa, Florida, and colleagues examined pain severity and the adequacy of pain management in 131 cancer patients newly referred to a multidisciplinary cancer pain clinic.

Men and women did not differ significantly in terms of worst pain scores, least pain scores, or pain interference. However, average pain in the last week and pain right now were significantly higher in women.  In addition, the average total daily dose of pain-killers was significantly greater for men (130 versus 66 milligrams morphine equivalent value).

These findings, Donovan and colleagues conclude, highlight the need to improve the treatment of pain in cancer patients and to “more closely examine physician and patient-related factors that may hinder adequate pain management.”

To understand how to develop an effective chronic pain management plan check out my article The Need for Multidisciplinary Chronic Pain Treatment that you can download for free on our Ariticles 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 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.

To read the September Issues of Chronic Pain Solutions Newsletter please Click here. If you want to sign up for the newsletter, please Click here and input your name and email address. You will then recieve an autoresponse email that you need to reply to in order to finalize enrollment.