Jun 14 2008
Interview with Author and Psychiatrist David Abbey Ph.D, CPsych
1. Why do you feel that so many chronic pain sufferers go untreated?
It isn’t that they go untreated, it’s that many fail to benefit from either the first treatment (which may not work for them) or from a longer series of treatments ) many of which my only work for a brief period of time or not at all. And, there are also many who do not seek treatment at all, or continually re-injure themselves, or who are afraid to admit to pain which persists after their health care provider has assured them they should be better.
2. How can a chronic pain sufferer overcome those that say “You’re still not better” and other deprecating comments?
Smile. Point out that it must be difficult for them to imagine that a pain which they can’t see and are not experiencing could still be bothersome.
3. Is there any therapy that can help any chronic pain sufferer, or are they all condition specific?
From my reading and experience (clinical and personal) mindfulness is probably the one therapy which stands the best chance of being called the universal pain therapy.
4. Why did you write your book, Chronic Pain Relief: 12 non-medical approaches, and what do you hope readers take away after reading it?
I wrote the book in order to share a collection of techniques which are easily learned, inexpensive, portable, effective and which have no side-effects. I hope people who are in chronic pain will experiment with the various techniques and perhaps create a synthesis which works for them. Perhaps this will be the only method they use perhaps they will use it in conjunction with more traditional medical/drug interventions.
Where do you see chronic pain treatments going in the next 10 years? What do you hope health professionals realize by then?
I’m hoping that more and more physicians will stop being afraid of using appropriate analgesics in appropriate amounts. The fear of creating dependency has created too much needless suffering. I’m hopeful that meditation, mindfulness, and many other holistic approaches (including Chinese medicine, tai-chi, and other balancing techniques) will make greater inroads in Western care and practice. I’m hopeful that more health professionals will work with psychologists, neuroscientists and physiotherapists )to name a few related disciplines) to address the problem of how someone is actually supposed to “live with it” when all treatments appear to have been exhausted.
David Abbey, PhD CPsych
Registered Psychologist (Ontario)
