Physical pain has many faces, the body responds like the psyche, and a coexistence is created that in the different stages of our existence can become chronic pain.
We are exposed from our birth to the sensations of pain, they become a latent truth of reality. The discomfort begins in the avenues, exits and entrances of our organism and is established in the emotions once the pain has not yielded to that of the drugs.
Emotions can generate or produce high levels in relation to physical pain, so the mental and physiological connection triggers a symbiotic dependence of both parties, where the behavior and the intensity of the same will be a primary circumstance in the Pain treatment, even if this con leads the person who suffers it to a constant disability.
To be able to treat the Chronic pain From Psychology, we have to bear in mind both the emotional experience of the individual and the sensory experience.
For the health professional, separating the two will better guide the patient to an adaptation and symptomatic understanding of their own pain. In the study of pain, psychology explores three important references to analyze the patient:
Pain for patients - post-operative in some cases - leaves them vulnerable to psychopathologies such as anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, among others.
The conflict tied to pain is exacerbated when the individual cannot be present in the social sphere, so their work activities, such as family activities, are diminished by the pain and the joint psychological condition.
Between anxiety and fear settles negative and positive emotional states, where avoidance as well as the gratification produced by external stimuli - for example food or drugs - allows the patient to have a pain management developing maladaptive emotions.
The stress of not being able to get out of the frequency and consecutive manifestation of depression and pain, permeates the patient's personality, so it associates a Catastrophizing from pain; this pattern is a exaggeration of pain in a negative way what generates an atmosphere more disabling still that distances the individual from a speedy recovery.
The attachment to family in relation to patients with chronic pain, it is a risk since it intensifies the episodes of Catastrophizing, Therefore, physiological pain will not always be present by the biological route, but by the personal and social construction of a member so that the patient responds with a sample of high physical disability.
Within the psychological interventions for the treatment of chronic pain, the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy It is applied so that patients can predict the response and its consecutive interpretation of their own pain, since it is an individual experience for each person.
In therapy the individual experience the sensation and analyze the thoughts passing through and how this pain is reflected in the emotions and in the behavior itself.
Is cognitive restructuring helps to reconfigure the maladjustment produced by chronic pain, among the techniques to treat pain are:
The meditation is another accepted way of psychology, which allows the person to identify the feelings caused by pain and stress, breathing can be complemented with exercises where the body is not put in a situation of close ailment.
In the same way the Mindfulness, supports the individual to return to the experience of pain from the full attention, Therefore, when separating and distinguishing the emotions caused by the condition or those that increase - behaviors or thoughts - due to the symptomatic load, it involves the patient to expose these and other feelings in relation to their own pain.
The acceptance of pain It is a multidisciplinary work that is generated with the accompaniment of the health professional, be it a psychologist or therapist, also contact will be established with the doctor or specialist to carry out a joint treatment to improve the health and well-being of the patient.
The recognition that is transmitted in the therapies is an instrument for the future life, to know the functions of the human body at the individual level, from the sensory capacities to the organic functions of the body., without falling into hypochondria.
Timely information and intervention from the therapist can help the patient in the associative task by exploring emotionality in the experience of pain., positive changes can be seen in the long term.
The primary assessment It is of utmost importance to consider the approach to be taken in the successive sessions and how the health professional can support doctors, rehabilitators or nurses; the interview should take into account the level of pain that the patient experiences in the biopsychosocial sphere, to design an effective strategy.
Important points to note in the first interview:
In order to manage the emotional state related to chronic pain, the most obvious clinical disorders that occur in the human body must be taken into consideration, in order to know the alterations before the stimuli related to the physiological action of the patient:
The psychologist will try that the patient reaches the appropriate state of control for himself, regarding the chronicity of pain, as it will prevent dependence on it, reinforce behaviors and generate resistance to treatment.
The assembly of several techniques is an essential complement to consolidate techniques that in turn helps the patient to promote a intrapersonal understanding of your own pain and your ability to self-analyze it.
Sources:
Gaviria Gómez, Ana & Lucía, Gaviria. (2005). Psychological aspects of chronic pain.
Benito, G., Nadador, V., Fernández-Alcnatud, J., Hernández-Salvan, J., Ruiz-Castro, M., & Riquelme, I… (2006). Psychologist interventions in Pain Clinics: A proposal from the experience of the Pain Unit of the Prince of Asturias University Hospital in Alcalá de Henares, Madrid. Journal of the Spanish Pain Society, 13 (4), 254-262. Retrieved on August 19, 2020, from http://scielo.isciii.es/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1134-80462006000400007&lng=es&tlng=es.
González, Margarita. (2014). Chronic Pain and Psychology: Update. Medical journal. Las Condes Clinic. Vol. 25. No. 4: pages 610-617 (July 2014). Retrieved from: https://www.elsevier.es/es-revista-revista-medica-clinica-las-condes-202-articulo-dolor-cronico-psicologia-actualizacion-S0716864014700811
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