Dr Winston Collins: Chronic Pain Often Brings a Need for Psychosocial Services

Chronic pain is often associated with depression or dysphoria as people can no longer do all the things they want, which may require psychosocial services, said Winston Collins, PhD, program director for substance use services at the John F. Kennedy Behavioral Health Centers.

Transcript

What are some of the best psychosocial methods to help patients with chronic pain?

If you look at chronic pain, chronic pain brings with it, I think in many cases, a need for psychosocial services. Many folk who are suffering from chronic pain, also suffer from major depressive disorder or some sort of dysphoria. So, we do want to connect folk who are having chronic pain and they’re getting medication and they’re using those medications appropriately.

Maybe the pain medicine helps to increase their functionality to a degree, but they still can’t do the things that they would love to do. Like maybe, hold their child up at a certain level and play with them. They can’t do it. So, it can come with some dysphoria, it can come with some depression. So, we can use therapies, such as CBT, cognitive behavioral therapy, to kind of help them work through any emotional or mental health issue that goes along with the chronic pain.