Author: Nicole Platt
Patient Advocate, Pain Relief Clinic MD

How Attitude Effects Pain Management

Pain Relief Clinic, MD’s approach to pain management largely depends on what’s causing the pain. When it’s a byproduct of an ongoing health condition, our focus is finding a good pain management strategy to keep discomfort at a minimum. When the pain is caused by a specific event or injury, we can focus on the prevention of chronic pain.

The answer isn’t always so simple – pain is complex and unique to each individual – but there are some things that you can do to prevent pain from taking hold in the long-term. And, similar to other chronic diseases like diabetes and heart attacks, one of the keys to prevention is understanding the risk.

These events have been identified as being high risk for developing chronic pain:

• Surgeries. Though most all surgeries are painful, some are particularly associated with developing chronic pain: mastectomies, thoracotomies , joint replacements, amputations, and spine surgeries like laminectomies and fusions. With each of these different types of surgeries, it is  common to experience persistent nerve pain related to the operation. There are ongoing studies looking for ways to block excessive nerve irritation during these surgeries.
• Acute trauma. Acute trauma, like motor vehicle accidents or fall injuries, carries an elevated risk of chronic pain. The fear and mental trauma can affect out pain levels negatively.
• Low back pain. Unlike other acute injuries, like a sprained ankle, where rest is a necessary part of the recovery process, low back injuries don’t heal as well with prolonged bed rest. Recovery is quicker when appropriate movements and a return to typical daily activities are started early on after a back injury.

Past studies suggest that belief patterns also play a role in the development of chronic pain. When we think the absolute worst about a given situation, it can lead to feelings of anxiety, depression, fear, and hopelessness. Catastrophizing is a known risk factor for developing chronic pain, while feeling more positive and optimistic seems to be associated with improvements in health and well-being. Clearly pain is very real and should not be downplayed for any reason and always acknowledged. This is just an interesting mental approach for patients to practice on their own to determine how helpful is is to them.

With so many different factors contributing to chronic pain, our approach to prevention should be multifaceted. We take pain and quality of life very seriously at Pain Relief Clinic, MD. If there is ever anything we can do to help you with your pain management treatment, please let us know!