Diagnosing and Managing a Patient with Chronic Pain

“Diagnosing and Managing a Patient with Chronic Pain and A Co-Occurring Mood or Substance Use Disorder” Chronic pain is diagnosed after a prolonged period of pain without a medical explanation. It can be unnerving to understand the cause of such pain and can be managed by eliminating the first known diseases to understand where the pain can be coming from. Various tests are conducted such as blood, imaging, and nerve testing. Chronic pain comes with unpleasant emotional experience and often co-occurs together with “mental disorders such as depression, anxiety, or substance use disorders” that bring complications in the treatment (Buono et.al., 2020). Co-occurring disorders may or may not be diagnosed and in most cases not treated which causes substantial barriers for chronic pain treatment. Comorbid analysis can deteriorate one’s quality life that increases the severity of somatic symptoms, mood changes, and disruption of sleep. The chronic pain has been managed through interdisciplinary care that helps to address the biopsychosocial dimensions although the system faces some barriers that inhibits its implementation. The medication of chronic pain has been managed using opioids. Although the use of opioids has been widely prescribed eight times than it did in the last two decades although its use has led to misuse, addiction, and overdoses (Buono et.al., 2020). The reports show that long-term treatment using opioids has proved to be inconclusive. The medicine lowers the pain and masks it without identifying the primary source of the pain. The interdisciplinary care has drawn interest in current studies as they examine the effect of the “care on the chronic pain, function interference, and psychiatric illness. The study concluded that patients who experience prolonged ache and co-occurring psychological condition have reduced in the pain due to enjoying life (Buono et.al., 2020). Such patients eliminate and reduce opioid reliance by being administered under an interdisciplinary care program on the management of chronic pain and help them in self-care. Other programs include mindfulness training, physical therapy, and art therapy.                                         Reference Buono, F. D., Savage, S. R., Cerrito, B., O’Connell, J., Garakani, A., Ackerman, S., & Cutter, C. J. (2020). Chronic Pain, Mood Disorders and Substance Use: Outcomes of Interdisciplinary Care in a Residential Psychiatric Hospital. Journal of Pain Research, 13, 1515