According to the Ohio State University Medical Center chronic pain has been said to be the most costly health problem in US. Increased medical expenses, lost income, lost productivity, compensation payments, and legal charges are some of the negative economic consequences of chronic pain. Consider the following:

Low back pain is one of the most significant health problems. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 70 percent to 85 percent of all people have back pain at some time in their life. Back pain is the most frequent cause of activity limitation in people younger than 45 years old.

Cancer pain affects the majority of patients in intermediate or advanced stages of cancer. About 1.4 million new cases of cancer are diagnosed each year in the US.

Arthritis pain affects nearly 47 million Americans each year.

Headaches, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), affect millions of US adults. The three most common types of chronic headaches are migraines, cluster headaches, and tension headaches.

Other pain disorders such as the neuralgias and neuropathies that affect nerves throughout the body, pain due to damage to the central nervous system (the brain and spinal cord), as well as pain where no physical cause can be found - psychogenic pain - increase the total number of reported cases.

According to US News & World Report (February 2009) chronic pain is a problem that—when healthcare, lost income, and lost productivity are taken into account—is estimated to cost over $100 billion in the United States each year. More than a quarter of Americans age 20 or older, or about 76.5 million people, say they’ve experienced pain that lasted longer than 24 hours, according to the American Pain Foundation—and 42 percent have endured pain lasting longer than a year.

This high cost is why effective chronic pain management is so important.  What further complicates pain management is the presence of coexisting disorders including addiction.  These conditions cause even more of an over-utilization of the healthcare system.  That is one of the many reasons I developed the Addiction-Free Pain Management® System—a multidisciplinary team approach that address the chronic pain condition and any coexisting disorders.

Learn more about the importance of using a team approach by reading my article The Need for Multidisciplinary Chronic Pain Management that you can download for free on our Article page.

You can learn 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.

To read the latest issue 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.

To see an online overview of Cognit delivering Addiction-Free Pain Management® please go to this Link for a free demo.

To learn about my upcoming trainings you can check out our Calendar page.

As the Clinical Director of Training and Consultation for the Gorski-CENAPS® Corporation I am very excited to announce that SouthCoast Recovery is taking the first step towards the Gorski-CEANPS® Relapse Prevention Center of Excellence (COE).  This week I will be conducting the first staff training for the staff at SouthCoast in Dana Point California. On Saturday I conduct the first day of the Center of Excellence Evaluation.

This first training is a combination of an overview of the Gorski-CENAPS® Developmental Model of Recovery and 20 hours of our Denial Management Counseling competency certification training.

Dennis Larkin is the founder and developer of SouthCoast Recovery as well as two additional enterprises at the forefront of addiction and recovery services. He is a Certified Chemical Dependency Counselor C.C.D.C., Certified Life Coach M.L.E & E.L.E and Certified Addiction Treatment Counselor C.A.T.C. Dennis holds certificates in Drug and Alcohol Studies, Family Services, Victim Services, Corrections and Criminal Justice Studies and is Gorski Trained in Relapse Prevention and Denial Management. He is an active member of C.A.A.D.E. and is trained in meditation and yoga. Dennis resides in Dana Point, California with his fiancé Jackie and their Golden Retriever, Kona.  Please read below what Dennis says about SouthCoast or to learn more check out the SouthCoast Recovery Website.

“SouthCoast now has over 15 years continuous experience in creating innovative programs where a blend of clinical, holistic and spiritual approaches to addiction are our focus. In my effort to provide a healing environment for the chemically dependent individual that would encompass mind, body and spirit, we have to explore the practical part of getting a life and living in society on its terms. The spiritual aspects of treatment intervention must meet the unique demands of quality, specialized care for each individual.”

In addition to offering a training in denial management for addictive disorders, I have modified the Denial Management Counseling process for work with people living with chronic pain and coexisting disorders including addiction. To learn more about chronic pain management and denial please check out my article From Denial to Effective 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 or a loved one is undergoing chronic pain management, especially if you’re in recovery or believe you may have a medication or other mental health problem and you want to learn more effective chronic pain management tools, please go to our Publications page and check out my books; especially the Addiction-Free Pain Management® Recovery Guide: Managing Pain and Medication in Recovery. To purchase this book please Click Here.

To read the latest issue 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.

To see an online overview of Cognit delivering Addiction-Free Pain Management® please go to this Link for a free demo.

To learn about my upcoming trainings you can check out our Calendar page.

My goal is to update our News & Research Page monthly to provide a synopsis of news stories and research or publications that are related to chronic pain management and prescription drug addiction treatment.  Below is a brief introduction of this months three posts.

Risks and Benefits of Acetaminophen: To begin I want to reiterate my belief that there is no such thing as a “bad” medication. How it’s used, what it’s used for and who uses it will determine either positive or negative outcomes. For most people, acetaminophen is something of a mystery as it appears in many combination cough and cold products, as well as prescription pain medications, such as Vicodin and Percocet. . .

Spinal Cord Stimulation for Chronic Pain Management: With all the concerns about the high toll prescription drug abuse and addiction takes, it is exciting to see recent research on a non-pharmacological medical approach to help alleviate back pain and increase quality of life. Electrical stimulation has been used in many different ways for decades, but there is now a newer procedure that is showing even better results. . .

Psychotherapeutic Approaches for Chronic Pain Management: Since 1996 I have been advocating the use of a multidisciplinary approach to chronic pain management, especially when accompanied with coexisting psychological disorders, including addiction. For many years I have encouraged participants at my trainings to include the use of a variety of non-medication based approaches for any chronic pain management condition, with pain focused psychotherapy topping the list. . .

Visit our News & Research Page to see the complete postings as well as an archive of past research.

You can learn more about the Addiction-Free Pain Management® System at our website www.addiction-free.com. If you or a loved one is undergoing chronic pain management, especially if you’re in recovery or believe you may have a medication or other mental health problem and you want to learn more effective chronic pain management tools, please go to our Publications page and check out my books; especially the Addiction-Free Pain Management® Recovery Guide: Managing Pain and Medication in Recovery. To purchase this book please Click Here.

To read the latest issue 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.

To see an online overview of Cognit delivering Addiction-Free Pain Management® please go to this Link for a free demo.

To learn about my upcoming trainings you can check out our Calendar page.