Chronic pain syndrome is the terrible force that turns chronic pain into constant suffering. It is the biggest threat pain patients face. Chronic pain syndrome is a group of physical and mental characteristics that often accompany chronic pain. It consists of negative behaviors and attitudes that gradually pull pain patients away from their lives, into a ceaseless whirlpool of pain.

Chronic pain syndrome is highly destructive, in and of itself. It also greatly magnifies the physical sensation of pain.

To find out if you have chronic pain syndrome, complete the following questionnaire.

Do you have chronic pain syndrome?

1. I've had persistent pain for at least three months, despite my doctor's treatment. True or False

2. I frequently act as if I'm in pain, by groaning, crying, wincing, or massaging the area that hurts. True or False


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3. I'm not physically able to do as many things as I was before my pain started. True or False

4. I'm not as interested in my hobbies as I was before my pain began. True or False

5. I often feel very depressed, or have considerable anxiety. True or False

6. My nutritional habits have deteriorated. I either have no appetite, or I eat too many "fun foods" to make myself feel better. True or False

7. People don't seem to enjoy my company as much as they did before my pain began. True or False

8. It often takes real willpower for me to control my irritability. True or False

9. My pain interferes with my work at some point during almost every day. True or False

10. I'm frequently tired. True or False

11. My medication is my most powerful weapon against pain. True or False

12. My pain often interferes with my ability to concentrate. True or False

13. I wish I could take better care of the people in my family, but it's hard enough for me just to take care of myself. True or False

14. My sleeping patterns are often disrupted by pain. True or False

15. My nerves are so touchy that I tend to overreact to minor things, such as sudden loud noises. True or False

16. I've gone from doctor to doctor, looking for someone who can help. True or False

17. When I have an important day coming up, I worry that my pain will interfere.

18. I've lost the feeling of control over my life. True or False

19. I've begun to feel that my life has been ruined by my pain. True or False

20. I spend more time thinking about my pain than any other single aspect of my life. True or False

If you answered "true" to only questions one, two, and three, you are suffering from chronic pain, but not from chronic pain syndrome. If that's the case, you are a person of unusual courage and wisdom.

If you answered "true" to at least ten of the twenty questions, you have moderate chronic pain syndrome. If you answered "true" to fifteen questions, you have advanced chronic pain syndrome. If you answered "true" to eighteen or more questions, you have severe chronic pain syndrome.

If you have any degree of chronic pain syndrome, you will almost certainly need help to overcome it. I can provide much of that help with this book.

You probably developed chronic pain syndrome gradually. When you first began to suffer from chronic pain, you may have consciously chosen to adopt some of the chronic pain syndrome behaviors, thinking that they would spare you further pain. For example, you might have decided to limit your involvement with your work or hobbies, to save your energy, and to save yourself from extra pain.

But most of the syndrome's characteristics probably invaded your life against your will. You didn't choose to become depressed, irritable, or tired. It just happened, because of your pain's biological and psychological impact.

One of the awful things about chronic pain syndrome is that it makes the physical feeling of pain much more intense. It increases the brain's perception of pain. Just one example: Arthritis patients who suffer from depression are approximately twice as sensitive to painful stimuli as non-depressed arthritis patients.

Thus, chronic pain syndrome -- which is caused by pain -- also causes further pain. It contributes to a physical phenomenon called the "cycle of pain," which haunts the lives of many pain patients.

To break this insidious cycle, you will need to follow a careful, constructive program. It's up to you to actively implement this program in your own life, and to defeat chronic pain syndrome (which is also called "Pain Disorder with Psychological Features").

There are many elements in my pain program that intervene in the cycle of pain, and you can start the program by engaging in almost any of them.

My pain program consists of four fundamental treatment modalities, or levels. Each of them helps break the cycle of pain and eliminate chronic pain syndrome.

The four levels are: (1) Nutritional Therapy (including dietary modification, and ingestion of specific nutrients); (2) Physical Therapies (including exercise therapy, acupuncture, massage, light therapy, magnetherapy, chiropractic, and advanced yogic mind-body exercises); (3) Medication (including use of pain medications, nerve blocks, injections, and brain-enhancement medications); and (4) Mental and Spiritual Pain Control (including stress reduction, treatment of anxiety and depression, psychological therapies, and spiritual development).

The vast majority of the pain patients I have treated over the past fifteen years have reported a dramatic reduction in the pain that created their chronic pain syndrome. Their pain diminished to the point where it was no longer a significant element in their lives. Many of them still had occasional pain, as all people do, but their debilitating chronic pain, and the suffering it caused, was cured.

In many other patients the pain disappeared entirely. In some cases this disappearance of pain occurred because of the successful treatment of the neurological problems that were perpetuating the cycle of pain.

In other cases, though, the pain disappeared because the underlying problems that caused the pain were eliminated. For example, I have treated arthritis patients whose pain vanished because their arthritis went into remission. This type of occurrence is very rare among patients of conventional "allopathic" (or anti-disease) medicine, because allopathic medicine is generally ineffective at reversing long-standing degenerative diseases, such as arthritis. However, the form of medicine that I practice is not solely anti-disease, but is also strongly pro-health. It stimulates the body's own natural healing force. This form of medicine combines conventional Western medicine with Eastern medicine, and is known as "complementary medicine" or, as I now prefer to call it, "integrative medicine."

Integrative medicine can be quite effective against degenerative diseases. A slowly developing degenerative disease is often caused by mistakes in lifestyle; when those mistakes are corrected by integrative medicine, the patient's body is often able to overcome the disease.

One of the simplest examples of this is the elimination of low back pain caused by obesity. When the patient sheds his or her extra pounds through an integrative medicine program that includes nutritional therapy and exercise therapy, the pain often vanishes. However, if the obesity is not corrected, conventional allopathic treatment generally fails.

As you can see, integrative medicine is not always magical or mysterious. Often it's just a good commonsense treatment.

Even if a patient's pain cannot be totally eradicated, though, the patient can still break the cycle of pain, overcome chronic pain syndrome, and begin to feel great. If you doubt that someone who experiences frequent pain can still feel great, consider the lives of professional athletes. Most pro basketball players, for example, feel an assortment of serious pains virtually every day, owing to the extreme rigor of their sport. As a matter of fact, when Michael Jordan first retired from basketball to play baseball, he cited pain as a major factor in his decision, noting that he was "tired of hurting all the time." And yet, Michael Jordan -- despite his pain -- had remarked throughout his career that he felt great on most of the days of his life. He was almost always able to rise above his pain and do what he loved to do. He loved it so much that he quickly ended his retirement, even though he knew he was returning to a life of daily pain. Like many people, including many of my own patients, he was master of his pain instead of its victim.

©1999 by Dharma Singh Khalsa, M.D


This article is excerpted from the book:

The Pain Cure
by Dharma Singh Khalsa, M.D.

©1999. All rights reserved. Posted with permission from Time Warner Bookmark.

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Dharma Singh Khalsa, M.D.

About The Author

Dharma Singh Khalsa, M.D. is the founding director of the Acupuncture Stress medicine and Chronic Pain Program at the University of Arizona Teaching Hospital in Phoenix. He is the author of The Pain Cure as well as of Brain Longevity and Meditation As Medicine. Visit his website at www.meditation-as-medicine.com