Chronic Pain and Depression

This paper introduces, discusses and analyzes the topic of chronic pain and resulting depression.

Specifically the paper shows the connection between chronic pain and depression. It defines these terms and examines how it affects the person and the ones around them. The paper addresses treatment options and discusses ways to break the cycle.
“What causes depression? For thousands of years, depression was thought to simply be a weakness of the mind, often called “melancholia. “Depression is caused, in part, by certain life goals which become unfeasible, but which a person cannot abandon, this resulting in reflection upon lost goals. To gradually abandon these goals and to work towards other goals is to overcome the depression” (Miletich, 1995, p. 11). Today, we know depression is a treatable disease, and often physicians and therapists treat it with a variety of anti-depressive drugs, gaining very positive results. However, there is another kind of depression that is much more difficult to treat, because it is linked to a physical ailment, chronic pain. ”