I invite you to try a new practice each week. To enjoy life more, you can decrease the negative or increase the positive. Unfortunately, for those of us with chronic pain, we sometimes can’t lower that negative experience. So these practices will be designed to increase the positive! Smile! It’s such a simple thing to do, but it can have […]

This article is in our series Why You Should See a Pain Management Psychiatrist. What are the newer treatments such as mirror therapy and graded motor imagery for pain. In chronic pain, your brain is changed so that signals stuck in pain-mode. Chronic pain creates actual changes in your brain. As well, when you’re in pain, you […]

This article is in our series Why You Should See a Pain Management Psychiatrist. For many years, I’ve offered Coping with Pain support groups. These sessions have both skill-building (learning exercises such as relaxation and visualization) and discussions on living with chronic pain (issues such as family issues, staying positive, working towards acceptance). Some patients find them so helpful, they attend […]

Welcome to the series Why You Should See a Pain Management Psychiatrist. Can supportive therapy be helpful to you?  It helps people cope with a difficult situation through listening and support, problem-solving, and instilling hope. How does it help? 1. Telling your story Chronic pain is often a life-changing situation. Research by Viederman and others has shown that telling […]

Welcome to the series Why You Should See a Pain Management Psychiatrist. Let’s look at making changes in how you see your pain condition and the disability it causes. Both pain itself and the negative changes it causes in your life are CHALLENGING to cope with. People experience a lot of loss – loss of: good health being pain-free doing enjoyable activities with family […]

Welcome to the series Why You Should See a Pain Management Psychiatrist. Let’s look at behavior changes that can help you live better and get better. Do positive activities It’s important that you keep up activities when you have chronic pain. A pain management psychiatrist will help you with pacing, which is not doing too much nor too little. A […]

Welcome to the series Why You Should See a Pain Management Psychiatrist. What psychological skills you can learn to decrease and cope with pain? There are many types of relaxation exercises you can learn. Breathing, basic relaxation and visualization all help in several ways. They: help you relax and decrease anxiety decrease the stress response associated with pain help […]

Welcome to the series Why You Should See a Pain Management Psychiatrist. Let’s look at using psychiatric medication for pain. Antidepressants are, obviously, best know for treating depression. But there’s more! Antidepressants can be used for chronic pain itself, separately from treating depression. This means they are sometimes prescribed even if someone has no depression – just to […]

Welcome to the series Why You Should See a Pain Management Psychiatrist. People with pain also develop psychiatric disorders. For example, depression (8-50% of patients with pain), anxiety (19-50%), PTSD (10%), sleep disturbance (50% or more), and drug and alcohol problems (3-19%) are common in patients with pain. Let’s look at some important issues related to treating these […]

Welcome to the series Why You Should See a Pain Management Psychiatrist. When I see someone for psychiatric pain management, I initially do a psychiatric evaluation which includes these areas: 1. Prior psychiatric functioning and psychiatric diagnoses This lets me understand if someone has had difficulty with anxiety, depression, sleep, etc, even before confronting a pain disorder. If […]