Anxiety

Last updated: Wed, Jul 31, 2024

It seems that it's hard to be relaxed while you're in pain. (Breath deeply......ahhh!) One author reports the following incidences for pain patients being treated in tertiary (in-patient referral) facilities. Bear in mind that this is a set of patients with unusually severe problems:1

Panic disorder	11%
Panic disorder with agoraphobia	2.1%
Generalized anxiety disorder	15-20%
Obsessive-compulsive disorder	1.1%
PTSD	7-39%
Phobic disorder	9%
Social phobia	11%
Adjustment disorder with anxious mood	42.8%

Table 1: Estimated incidence of various anxious conditions in chronic pain patients

There is a probable link between anxiety in pain patients and the tendency of pain to stimulate the sympathetic nervous system. (Pain Science 4: Partner Systems.)