Information for Physicians
Chronic Pain Management
Multidisciplinary approaches to pain management have become the standard of care for treating chronic pain and chronic illness. The American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM) now recommends that chronic pain management should include medical, rehabilitative, and psychological modalities. Physicians are well aware that the end goal of pain intervention may be functional improvement rather than amelioration of discomfort. Psychological input is a vital component of the paradigm shift from cure to coping.
Psychological factors can have a dramatic impact on how well patients respond to medical and rehabilitative treatment. Untreated anxiety and depression, operant pain avoidance, fear of re-injury, somatization and symptom hypersensitivity, inappropriate or inadequate psychosocial support, and reduced motivation can compromise the effectiveness of even the most aggressive pain treatment modalities. Pain medication misuse and noncompliance can tax the resources of physicians and clinical staff, fostering feelings of mistrust between doctor and patient.
MedPsych Resources employs cognitive-behavioral strategies designed to enhance your patients’ psychological functioning and contribute to improved clinical success. Our input consists of psychological assessment using instruments with demonstrated reliability and validity for pain patient samples. We combine this data with information from a clinical interview, and then write a comprehensive report with detailed impressions and recommendations for improving your patient’s psychological well-being and active participation in pain rehabilitation. The hallmarks of our psychological pain management specialty are reinforcing a team approach to patient care and continuous monitoring of activity-based progress.
Frequently, adjunctive services such as addiction management, mindfulness wellness training, biofeedback, acupuncture, medically supervised weight reduction, or hypnotherapy are indicated to enhance pain management outcome. We can provide referral for and coordination of these services and provide you with comprehensive feedback about patient progress in these therapies along with their psychological pain management.
Some patients benefit from participation in a group treatment milieu that provides peer support, targeted problem solving, or education on relevant topics such as goal-setting or stress management. MedPsych Resources can design and implement a group treatment protocol to meet the specific needs of your patients.