ACT with Chronic Pain Patients

Abstract

Pain that persists for months and years has a profound impact on the sufferer’s life. Many chronic pain patients develop co-morbid depression; they utilize medical care excessively and feel wronged by the care they receive; many leave their jobs; obtain disability and settle into a lifestyle that, at best, bears faint resemblance to that they once imagined was possible. Chronic pain is influenced by numerous psychosocial factors, including biological factors as well as the patient’s socio-cultural background, beliefs, expectations, and emotions (Turk & Okifuji, 2002). Medical treatment success rates are high for patients with acute pain, but are disappointing for patients with chronic nonmalignant pain. The most common sources of non-cancer-related pain include (in decreasing frequency) back, head, joints, extremity, chest, abdomen and other areas. Since most chronic pain patients experience pain in multiple areas, most medical providers struggle to assess and treat all sources of pain and remain within the time constraints of busy primary care practices. Many patients are referred to specialists and undergo expensive, unsuccessful, invasive procedures—often repeatedly. The problem is not restricted to adults: children and adolescents also develop pain symptoms that are refractory to treatment and that lead to severe disability (Kashikar-Zuck, Graham, Huenefeld, & Powers, 2000). Research is more extensive with adult populations (Morley, Eccleston, & Williams, 1999) than with pediatric pain.