Psychology and chronic pain

Unfortunately for many sufferers, medical management alone is often not successful in alleviating chronic pain or in improving the emotional impacts and disability that come with it. The patients’ psychological experience of pain, the behaviour patterns they adopt, and the emotional, social, and cognitive influences on those behaviour patterns are critical in the management of many, if not most, cases. When pain has a significant impact on daily functioning, these parameters ought to be the central focus of treatment, and not be seen as secondary. This article presents a description of current psychological methods for the treatment of chronic pain, highlights some challenges of addressing psychological issues during a medical consultation, and notes that structured psychological approaches to chronic pain have a good record of success, whether these services are delivered by a single provider or by an interdisciplinary team of providers working from a cognitive–behavioural framework.