Why Do Chronic Pain Patients Have Multiple Accidents?

It has been our observation that our chronic pain adult patients often fit the characteristic of ADHD. Inattention, Hyperactivity, and Impulsivity. Our evidence now demonstrates that the increased incidence of accidents found in chronic pain patients may be the result of undiagnosed and untreated ADHD. Roughly 4 million children may be diagnosed with ADHD, while only 2 million are being actively treated with d,l‐methylphendidate or other psycho‐stimulants. Examination of the statistics shows that the majority of children with ADHD are not recognized. One would then conclude that these children will also be inadequately treated as adults. Since the majority of children with ADHD carry these symptoms into adulthood there must then be a much greater total number of untreated adults between the ages of 16 to death. A retrospective review of 460 random patients during a 6‐month period included new and existing chronic pain patients. Our results preliminarily identified a trend in patient’s histories, characterized by anxiety problems and depressive symptoms, coupled with a family history of ADHD. Our methodological retrospective chart reviews are suggestive of an associated ADHD has revealed that undiagnosed ADHD may be a cause of the patient’s accidents and that overall higher level functioning is appreciated in chronic pain patients when treatment with a long acting stimulant (d,l‐methylphenidate hcl) is initiated. Thirteen percent of our study population of chronic pain patients represents approximately two to three times greater frequency of expected ADHD patients that would be in a general adult population. The preliminary data support the hypothesis that chronic pain patients have a greater incidence of ADHD than might be expected and more importantly. We do not believe there are any previously published reports suggesting a correlation of ADHD with chronic pain resulting from increase incidence of accidents.