Patients with chronic pain can struggle for years with a disabling condition. It can be frustrating for clinicians who want to cure this pain, for therapists who want to help the patient cope with this pain and for the patient who has to live the pain. Dr. Frawley has worked for the past eight years with patients with a variety of combinations of chronic pain, addiction and mental health problems. While acute pain serves a biological function, chronic pain does not. In the same way that acute anxiety during a life threatening crisis serves a biological function, PTSD does not serve a healthy function. We are finding out that there are many connections between PTSD and Chronic pain. Substance P, which is one of the chemical messengers found at high levels in the cerebrospinal fluid with Fibromyalgia, is also found in high levels in patients with PTSD.

Treatment of chronic pain involves not only addressing the mechanical causes of pain, but also how the body adjusts to the pain and helping the patient deal with the impact of the injury on his/her life. For some illnesses, treatment is able to restore the patient to full function, but in chronic pain, often the injury results in the patient never being able to return to who they were before. Mechanical factors as well as emotional ones can contribute to pain flares. The clinician needs to help the patient develop solid skills in dealing with all of this in a new way.

At the end of this presentation clinicians will be better able to assess patients with chronic pain and learn about practical tools that will help their clients cope more effectively.