Pain shouldn’t be a constant feature of anyone’s life, but for many people it is. In this case, it’s what’s known as chronic pain and can have terrible consequences for everything someone does at work, home, school, and elsewhere.

What Is Chronic Pain?

Chronic pain is pain that persists for more than three months. It can be present constantly or only appears every once in a while. Chronic pain is often non-specific but can appear in any part of your body.

And chronic pain can disrupt daily activities, interfering with work, your social life, and caring for yourself or others. It can trigger depression, anxiety, and problems sleeping, which can worsen the pain. This creates a cycle that’s hard to resolve.

Facts About Chronic Pain

• Lower back pain is a huge health problem and is often the leading cause of limiting physical activity in adults.
• People with advanced cancer often experience chronic pain.
• 50 million Americans each year experience arthritis-related chronic pain.
• Headaches – migraines, cluster headaches, and tension headaches –affect millions of U.S. adults.

What else causes chronic pain? Neuralgias and neuropathies affect nerves throughout the body, a damaged central nervous system, and conditions where no physical cause is known – a phenomenon known as psychogenic pain.

Mood disorders like anxiety and depression commonly happen simultaneously as chronic pain related to arthritis, back problems, fibromyalgia, and migraines.

Facts About Mental Health

• • 20% of Americans have had a mental illness, with one in 25 facing a serious mental illness like bipolar disorder or schizophrenia.
  • Suicide led to almost 46,000 deaths in the U.S. in 2020.
  • People who’ve experienced war or a major disaster are twice as likely to develop a mental health disorder.
  • Most people with mental health issues are nonviolent. 
  • Many factors can result in mental illness, like genetics, physical injury or illness, and traumatic life events.
  • An estimated 35% to 45% of people experiencing chronic pain also have depression.

• Pain can also be a common symptom among people with an anxiety disorder, particularly generalized anxiety disorder, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA). 

The Link Between Chronic Pain And Mental Health

The relationship between chronic pain and mental health is well known to anyone who experiences them. If you have symptoms of long-term back pain, the mental anguish of not being as physically active as you wish because of it can be almost unbearable. Chronic pain is especially worrisome. Unlike acute pain, which often has a known cause and may go away on its own quickly, chronic pain can linger seemingly indefinitely – and often has no fixed point of origin. 

Pain isn’t meant to be a constant feature in our lives, but that’s what chronic pain is for many people. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 20% of people may experience chronic pain in their lifetimes. The highest prevalence is for women (21.7%), non-Hispanic white adults (23.6%), and people 65 and older (30.8%).

Daily pain can be physically and emotionally stressful. Mental Health America says, “Chronic stress is known to change the levels of stress hormones” and chemical neurotransmitters found within the brain and nervous system. These can be disruptive to moods, thinking, and behavior. It’s believed that disrupting the chemical balance in the brain may trigger depression, but more research is needed. One possible treatment? Ketamine, which can help strengthen and repair damaged chemical neurotransmitters like glutamate.

In “Chronic Pain and Mental Health Disorders,” experts at the Mayo Clinic found that depression, anxiety, and substance abuse disorders are often diagnosed in people with chronic pain. Still, evidence suggests that other problems happen as a result, including the risk of suicide.

Diagnosis & Treatment

Because they’re interconnected, chronic pain and mental health issues are often diagnosed at the same time. A medical professional will perform a physical examination to learn about any physical problems causing pain, while a mental health specialist will look for thoughts, behavior, and feelings that may trigger emotional distress. In either case, symptoms will be compared with specific criteria, especially in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in the case of mental health issues.

Can A Specialty Clinic Help?

In some cases, symptoms of chronic pain and mental health problems like depression, bipolar disorder, or anxiety can be alleviated with certain therapy, diet or lifestyle changes, or medicine like antidepressants or painkillers. One pain-relief method to consider is ketamine infusion therapy offered by licensed specialty clinics.