In this third of a series of writings about compassion and pain management, this article focuses on self-compassion. The premise is that it is essential for health care providers to have compassion for self as the foundation to empathically and compassionately care for patients, while promoting compassionate satisfaction and preventing compassion fatigue.Self-compassion is connecting care and support for self during times of personal suffering.
Migraine is a relatively common illness, affecting 12% of the population. Chronic migraine (CM) is a frequently encountered subset of migraine, and presents certain difficulties in treatment. Those with CM have at least 15 headache days per month, with at least 8 days being migrainous in nature. Many do not do well with the usual preventive approaches, and suffer from refractory chronic migraine (RCM).
Behavioral Medicine Institute (BMI) is a 20+ member, multi-specialty group practice based in Knoxville with a long-established referral base and innovative practice models including embedded clinicians in local medical practices. We are currently seeking a skilled and motivated clinician to add to our team of psychologists working embedded in a local, anesthesiology-based pain center which has received a Center of Excellence award from the American Pain Society. The opportunity is full time, we offer a supportive, collegial atmosphere…
A few nights ago, I was talking with my wife about something fairly benign – probably weekend plans or paying the light bill – when she suddenly got a look on her face that I know very well. It was that solemn, glaze-eyed look that says, “I’m so over this.” Like any good spouse would do, I asked, “What’s wrong? Are you ok?” Her eyes snapped to and she gave a slight smile accompanied by the quietly murmured, “I’m fine.” This was obviously not the case so I interpreted her response to mean that something was wrong…
As we enter this last year of the second decade of the 21st century, clinicians working with patients who experience pain confront the challenge of providing safe and effective pain management while facing numerous barriers to doing so. During the past few years pain management in the US has been dramatically affected by the opioid crisis. This is true for patients and clinicians alike. It is tempting to lament the resultant changes, barriers and difficulties; however, without appropriate action such lamenting will only deter from working to improve pain management options and care.
Individuals living with chronic pain often present with myriad complaints and a decrease in quality of life driven, in many cases, by a lack of adaptive coping skills. Frequently, patients apply conventional wisdom, opting to reduce their activity levels and “resting” as a response to their pain and, in doing so, further reduce their functional capacity and involvement in daily life. …CBT for Chronic Pain (CBT-CP) can help patients to break free from the chronic pain cycle. Evidence suggests that this intervention improves patients’ functioning and quality of life.
The cognitive model is a widely accepted and well published framework for understanding the crucial role that internal thoughts and attitudes play in the daily experience of emotion and behavior. More specifically, the model proposes that over the course of our lifetime, we all develop patterns of thought that influence our understanding of the world around us and the meaning we place on events in our lives. . . Among these dysfunctional patterns is catastrophizing–the tendency to draw erroneous and often irrational conclusions from a situation.
It is not uncommon for adolescents with severe headaches to be absent from school for long periods of time. Each child is unique, with multiple variables that include: frequency and severity of headaches, response to medication, psychological make-up, history of abuse, resilience and functioning, catastrophizing, stresses and response to stress, family and friends support system, and school support. In addition, family dynamics plays a role. The parents’ psychological condition is also an important factor.
Compassion has been discussed as the possible ghost of pain management. Intrinsic in that possible relationship is the potential ingredient known as compassion fatigue which is described by Sinclair and colleagues (2017) as “a work-related stress response in healthcare providers that is considered a ‘cost of caring’ and a key contributor to the loss of compassion in healthcare.” The stress response involved in compassion fatigue is believed to evolve while caring for patients, clinicians repeatedly experience, in a secondary manner, the traumatic events and/or suffering of patients.
Historically, the interactions between health care providers and patients involved a therapeutic component that enhanced the beneficial effect of the medications and treatments which were provided. Today, when they sense empathy and compassion from clinicians, patients continue to report greater satisfaction, less anxiety, and feeling safer, with improved outcomes demonstrated. Although compassion clearly is important in health care, it is often misunderstood.