Lifestyle and Psychological Issues

Abstract

Obesity, nicotine use, sleep disturbance, and psychological distress have all been linked to increased pain occurrence and severity.Nicotine use and sleep deprivation have been linked to reduce response to analgesic effects from pain medications.Weight reduction effectively reduces chronic pain complaints.Insomnia affects half of chronic pain patients and is linked to increased pain-related disability and depression.About half of chronic pain patients treated at specialty clinics and 25% treated through primary care have depression. Anxiety similarly affects about half of chronic pain patients treated at specialty clinics. Psychological distress predicts the development and persistence of chronic pain.