Open AccessImprovement in the Level of Psychosocial Functioning in Chronic Pain Patients With the Use of Risperidone
Author(s) -
FeBornstein Marcos,
Watt S. Damaris,
Gitlin Melvin C.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
pain medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.893
H-Index - 97
eISSN - 1526-4637
pISSN - 1526-2375
DOI - 10.1046/j.1526-4637.2002.02016.x
Subject(s) - medicine , chronic pain , psychopathology , psychosocial , depression (economics) , risperidone , psychiatry , antidepressant , affect (linguistics) , atypical antipsychotic , antipsychotic , physical therapy , schizophrenia (object oriented programming) , psychology , anxiety , communication , economics , macroeconomics
Psychiatric morbidity is a common complication of chronic pain. Psychopathology may lead to psychosocial dysfunction and poor prognosis for rehabilitation. Emotional factors associated with chronic pain may include depression with anxious and angry affect. Antidepressant medication is a common adjuvant pharmacological treatment in the chronic pain patient. While uncomplicated depression may respond well to antidepressants, some cases are treatment resistant. We present two cases of chronic pain patients with associated depression with angry affect that did not respond to conventional treatment. Addition of the atypical antipsychotic risperidone resulted in symptomatic improvement and higher levels of psychosocial functioning. Atypical antipsychotics may be useful in selected patients with chronic pain and treatment‐resistant depression.