The Cycle of Pain Sleep Loss Depression

Nothing causes or exacerbates depression like chronic pain that you can’t seem to resolve or escape from. Pain and depression in general have been associated for centuries for a good reason: they’re intrinsically linked. It’s pretty difficult to maintain a positive outlook on life when your struggling to stand up straight or move without grimacing. Serious back pain can make many of the pleasant experiences in life at least tainted, if not completely taken over by agony. When even laughter sends a jolt of pain straight up your spine, its hard to find the humor in every day.

Dr. Daniel K. Hall-Flavin of the Mayo Clinic wrote,

“Pain and the problems it causes can wear you down over time and affect your mood. Chronic pain causes a number of problems that can lead to depression, such as trouble sleeping and stress.

Disabling pain can cause low self-esteem due to work or financial issues or the inability to participate in social activities and hobbies.

Depression doesn’t just occur with pain resulting from an injury. It’s also common in people who have pain linked to a health condition such as diabetes, cancer or heart disease.”

Chronic pain causes a sort of feedback loop between the lack of sleep and depression as one of the key side effects of chronic pain is little or poor sleep. Little or poor sleep leads to fatigue and depression which feeds a lack of restful sleep. A lack of restful sleep exacerbates many medical conditions that lead to chronic pain, making it worse. Quite literally it’s a vicious cycle.

Lauren Bedosky wrote for health line,

“According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Trusted Source, adults like me who sleep less than the recommended seven hours per night are more likely than solid sleepers to report one of 10 chronic health conditions — including arthritis, depression, and diabetes.

That’s a significant connection, as roughly 50 to 70 million U.S. adults have some type of sleep issue, from insomnia to obstructive sleep apnea to chronic sleep deprivation.

Sleep deprivation is so potent that it can easily launch us into a downward spiral that, for many, can lead to depression or chronic pain.”

Counter-intuitively people don’t often associate these three commonly co-morbid problems that devastate quality of life. Mainly this happens because the chronic pain, sleep loss and depression begin to affect how your very mind functions. The neurological link between chronic pain and depression is centered on the neurotransmitter levels in the brain. Neurotransmitters are the chemical messengers that facilitate connections between the neurons that make up your nerves and brain. Chronic pain, sleep loss and depression throw these chemicals into imbalance.

So how do you attack the problem?

It’s the classic chicken-and-egg scenario: Does disordered sleep cause depression and chronic pain or do depression and chronic pain cause disordered sleep? First things first, the priority has to be to stop the pain, that means seeking help from a practice that handles diagnosis, consultation and treatment all in the same building. Summa Pain Care can help, you can find Dr. Paul Pannozzo’s practices in Phoenix, North Scottsdale and Peoria.

Medical issues like Arthritis, Headaches Shoulder, Arm, Elbow, and Hand pain,Thoracic and Scapular pain“Slipped Disk”, Sciatic a Lumbar, Hip, Knee, and Ankle pain Epidural injection Failure, Radiculopathy Radio-frequency ablation failure Fibromyalgia Heel pain, Plantar Fasciitis, Sports injuries, Work-related injuries Post-surgical joint replacement pains, Motor vehicle collisions even Scoliosis don’t need to be life sentences! You don’t have to be stuck this way forever!

There are treatments available now that have never been so accessible before! Like Spinal Cord, Dorsal Root Ganglion or Peripheral Nerve Stimulation Trial and Implants, Discography with Intradiscal Platelet Rich Plasma, Vertiflex or Sacroiliac Joint Intervention: Block, Injection, Ablation or Fusion.

The first step is:let’s handle the physical pain, give you that sigh of relief, sleep therapy and getting psychological treatment are also crucial and your mileage may vary.In some extreme situations a mental health evaluation needs to come first. But the vast majority of people, just need to get out of pain and the rest can follow naturally.

As the premier pain management specialists in Arizona Summa Pain Care,

• • Performs specialized tests for diagnosing your chronic pain conditions.
  • Appropriately prescribes and/or manages medications to any unique conditions at varying levels of severity. Also help reduce or eliminate your prescription pain medications.
  • Performs procedures like nerve blocks, radio frequency ablations and spinal injections.

Find your nearest location in Peoria, Phoenix or North Scottsdale today and don’t put this off any longer. Unaddressed back and neck pain generally doesn’t improve. Call our Phoenix location at 623.580.4357 , you can reach Peoria at 623.776.8686 or contact us in North Scottsdale at 480.786.1771.