The Relationship Between Chronic Pain and Depression
By Sandra Gill, LCSW Addressing the relationship between the mind and body is an integral part of our process at Advanced Pain Care. As a practicing therapist for 20 years, I’ve supported patients from all walks of life. We know your mental health is a critical component of your well-being and that chronic pain and mental health influence each other — especially when it comes to depression. Understanding that relationship can dramatically impact your recovery from chronic pain. How Does Chronic Pain and Depression Influence Each Other? There’s a direct correlation between chronic pain and depression. If you have either chronic pain or depression, you are
Myth Buster: Do Painkillers Reduce Your Pain Threshold?
By Anthony Perardi, Chief Physician Assistant At APC, we take great care to be sure we’re setting our patients up for long-term pain relief with advanced pain management. Medications can be an important part of addressing chronic pain, but we know you have questions about painkillers – and for good reason. Data provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that, between 2000 and 2017, prescription opioid drug users had a higher overdose mortality rate than heroin users. The overdose death rates for both those populations dropped in 2018 (though synthetic opioid overdose deaths increased). The good news is that the
Spinal Cord Stimulator: A Tried and True Pain Relief Technology
By Dr. Ryan Michaud The spinal cord stimulator may sound like a newer technology, but it’s actually been around for many years. The first documented use was in 1967. Like many technologies of that era, the spinal cord stimulator has improved dramatically over the years — even within the past three years. It continues to be a safe, effective treatment for helping patients with chronic pain syndromes. Here are some answers to your most frequently asked questions about the spinal cord stimulator. How Does the Spinal Cord Stimulator Work? The spinal cord stimulator blocks pain signals that are sent to your brain. It’s placed in
Q&A: Chronic Pain and the Spinal Cord Stimulator
By Amber Featherston, Director of Surgical Services In APC’s recent Facebook Live lunch, we had over 300 comments asking Dr. Mark Malone, Dr. Brad Culling, and Patient Ambassador Chester Jones a variety of questions about the spinal cord stimulator. (If you missed it, you can watch the full video on our YouTube channel.) With such enthusiastic participation, we couldn’t answer all of your questions in that session, so we’ve answered them below. We also encourage you to set up an appointment so we can address questions that are unique to your personal situation. If you’d like to read more about the spinal cord
Fighting Chronic Pain is a Family Affair
By: Tracy Malone I felt horrible and helpless watching my husband, Dr. Mark Malone, go through intense, chronic pain 24 hours a day. At the time, we had a new business, and we were struggling like any new business owners, and you wonder; does he just want to check out? Does he just want to not think about all of this for a little bit? Around this time, I was very worried about his health. He was rapidly losing weight, that was scary to see. We had financial worries. At one point, we were living on disability checks and credit cards. I worried about
Chronic Pain? Inversion Therapy Could Help
By: Dr. Victor Taylor Inversion therapy is a relatively inexpensive way to apply traction to the spine and helps to manage chronic spinal and radicular pain. This type of treatment can aid in the treatment of lumbar, thoracic, and even neck pain. A significant component of chronic pain is related to poor biomechanics, or loss of ideal movement. Inversion therapy can aid one important component of poor spinal biomechanics. What does that mean? Biomechanics simply refers to how our bodies move. How we walk, run, lift, sit etc. When biomechanics are off because of a problem in a joint, with a muscle or tendon