Sexual Abuse and Chronic Pain
At least 50% of my female patients and a lesser number of males with chronic pain have suffered childhood sexual abuse. Many other patients, male and female, have experienced physical or verbal abuse in their youth. There is little doubt that such trauma invites the appearance of chronic pain in latter life It also invites depression and anxiety with flashbacks to the experience, a condition that we know as Post-traumatic Stress Disorder The link between the two is close and many times the appearance of pain,even decades after the abuse, will be attended by flashbacks and nightmares. With successful treatment of pain,usually with opiates, these usually go away. Interestingly, a recent study showed the incidence of PTSD in military personnel who suffered combat wounds in the Near East could be greatly reduced by the early administration of the opiate morphine So, perhaps sometime in the future we will be giving morphine or other opiates for both the treatment and prevention of PTSD and perhaps even the prevention of the chronic pain the so often follows childhood abuse, sexual or otherwise
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