Chronic Pain | Psychotherapy Toronto

Should Those with Mental Illness Have the Right to Die?

September 13, 201800Chronic Pain, Decision-Making, Featured news, Health, Resilience, Suicide September, 18

Source: KingaBritschgi at DeviantArt/Creative Commons

On June 17, 2016, Canada joined a handful of countries and several U.S. states in enacting assisted suicide legislation. Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID), also known as euthanasia, was passed into Canadian law as Bill C-14 in an effort to provide relief from unbearable suffering to those whose death is reasonably foreseeable.

Although having the choice to die brings relief to many individuals and their families, Bill C-14 does not cover those who wish to end their life due to an unendurable mental illness.

Being denied a legal right to assisted death for significant mental illness was the plight of 27-year-old Adam Maier-Clayton. Since childhood, Maier-Clayton suffered from unrelenting psychological disorders that robbed him of sustaining a reasonable quality of life. In an essay published in The Globe and Mail, he detailed the unrelenting pain his psychological disorder caused him:

“I’m not suicidal in the sense that I hate myself and I want to leave. I think this world is beautiful, but this amount of pain is intolerable… Some people are confined to lives of truly horrifying amounts of suffering that no amount of treatment can stop.”

Maier-Clayton lobbied the Canadian federal government to change the criteria that would allow people with severe mental illness to qualify for medical assistance in dying. His bid was not successful. Sadly, in April 2017, he took his own life.

Currently, the law in Canada excludes access to MAID for people suffering from psychological issues alone. For right-to-die supporter, author, and journalist Sandra Martin, this position is disrespectful to the severely mentally ill. In an article written for The Globe and Mail, Martin argued for what she believes is the best interest of the patient:

“We can’t leave it to vote-wary politicians and risk-averse medical associations to campaign for an equitable MAID law….We can’t wait for another constitutional challenge to recognize that not all suffering is physical. That struggle is Maier-Clayton’s legacy—and fighting for it might make a difference to you or somebody you love.”

Not having an available, safe, and medically supervised solution to dying does not prevent death. According to Dying With Dignity Canada, the absence of a legal and feasible option pushes individuals into making agonizing and expensive decisions. They must either take their own life or travel abroad to countries where assisted suicide is legal.

Despite the pressure to change MAID, lawmakers are taking a cautious approach to considering future regulation on right-to-die policies involving psychological disorders. Many mental health professionals and organizations meet this unhurried approach favourably, as they feel it is necessary to protect potentially vulnerable members of society who may recover.

The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) supports the Canadian government’s decision to painstakingly consider the implications of MAID for psychiatric patients. CAMH stated:

“CAMH recognizes that people with mental illness can experience intolerable psychological suffering as a result of their illness, but there is always the hope of recovery. In those rare cases where a mental illness may be determined to be irremediable, safeguards must be in place to make sure that an individual truly has the capacity to consent to MAID.”

On February 8, 2017, in a panel discussion jointly hosted by the University of Toronto Faculty of Law and CAMH, mental health professionals converged to dissect this multifaceted debate. In addition to the vast legal issues, they discussed the enormous ethical dilemmas inherent in right-to-die policies. Panel member Scott Kim, Senior Investigator at the National Institute of Health, summarized some of the ethical, moral, and legal issues at play, and cautioned against enacting policy without the appropriate research on euthanasia available. Kim emphasized the risk of human error in the medical profession in making this type of decision:

“Euthanasia is permanent….Even the most sophisticated psychiatrist does not have too much data to go on except their own experience and impressions to make these prognostic determinations.”

Kim goes on to point out that wanting to die is often part of the mental illness manifestation itself, and with correct and consistent treatment, the desire to end one’s life may abate.

MAID currently requires a medical practitioner to support a patient’s resolve to die. The magnitude of such a permanent decision lies not only with the patient, but also with the medical professional. In an occupation that is obligated to ‘do no harm’, supporting the death of someone with a non-terminal illness, despite an intolerable life, appears contradictory.

Tarek Rajii, panel member and Chief of Geriatric Psychiatry at CAMH, has worked with patients that he knows may never recover. However, based on the current research available, Rajii remains hesitant about MAID for mental illness:

“We don’t know who will die suffering. We don’t know how to identify that person….If we are considering MAID as a form of treatment intervention, when there is very limited evidence, as a medical profession, do we introduce an intervention without enough evidence, that we don’t [fully] understand?”

With making the decision to end a life of psychological suffering, mistakes are not an option. There is no room for error; there is no reversal. And yet, how much suffering can one person endure? Ultimately, we are left with the realization that, despite the pain from devastating mental illness, hope for recovery cannot be ruled out.

– Kimberley Moore, Contributing Writer, “The Trauma and Mental Health Report”

“-Chief Editor: Robert T. Muller, The trauma and Mental Health Report”

Copyright Robert T. Muller

This article was originally published on Psychology Today

Using Mindfulness with Opioid Addicted Chronic Pain Patients

August 24, 201700Addiction, Chronic Pain, Featured news, Health, Mindfulness, Therapy August, 17

Source: frankieleon at flickr, Creative Commons

In March 2016, legislative bodies in Maine put a bill forward to combat the state’s rising opioid addiction problem. New restrictions on opioids for chronic pain require doctors to limit prescriptions to just 15 days, and to encourage doctors to consider non-medicinal forms of treatment.

Treatment of chronic pain involves a delicate balance between managing pain relief and risking drug addiction or abuse. Opiates have been used for centuries to treat acute and chronic pain, and there is little debate over the short-term benefits of medication, but their use for chronic, non-malignant pain is controversial.

Chronic pain is a debilitating lifelong illness. The National Institute of Health defines chronic pain as lasting for at least six months, and creating both physical and mental strain on the victim’s quality of life. Patients may experience fear, depression, hopelessness, and anxiety in coping with their pain.

At the annual 2013 American Psychiatric Association meeting, pain specialists debated how to properly treat chronic pain and explored new forms of non-medicinal treatment.

Jennifer Potter from the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Texas advocates continued use of opioid prescriptions, but cautions doctors to examine potential risk factors for substance abuse.

“The vast majority of people with chronic pain do not go on to develop an opioid addiction, so it’s important for patients to understand that if this medication benefits you, it’s not necessarily a concern. We can’t let our response to the rise in prescription drug abuse to be denying access to all people in pain who can benefit from opioids.”

But a 2015 study by Kevin Vowles and colleagues from the University of New Mexico found that, on average, 25 percent of chronic pain patients experience opioid misuse and 10 percent have an opioid addiction. So, we also need non-medicinal treatment options to care for lifelong pain.

“Patients with substance abuse issues can be treated for pain in a variety of ways that don’t involve opioids,” says Sean Mackey, Chief of the Pain Management Division at Stanford University and Associate Professor of Anaesthesia and Pain Management.

One alternative way to approach chronic pain is through mindfulness, described as the process of paying active, open attention to the present moment. When a person is mindful, they observe their own thoughts and feelings from a distance, without judging them as good or bad.

Mindfulness is based on acceptance of one’s current state, and is becoming increasingly popular among patients as a way to help with pain symptoms.

Jon Kabat-Zinn, founding Executive Director of the Center for Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts, advocates for mindfulness-based strategies to be incorporated into chronic pain treatment programs.

Kabat-Zinn created the popular Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction approach designed to treat chronically ill patients responding poorly to medication. The eight-week stress reduction program involves both mindfulness practice and yoga, and is effective in alleviating pain and in decreasing mood disturbance and stress.

A study by Natalia Morone and colleagues at the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System showed the benefits of mindfulness in older adults with chronic low back pain by looking at diary entries of participants throughout an eight-week mindfulness treatment program. They found that treatment improved attention, sleep, pain coping, and pain reduction through meditation.

Some participants gained better awareness of their body throughout treatment:

“It felt good to realize [through mindfulness] that I can co-exist with my pain. Being mindful helped me realize that in my angry reaction to my back pain, I was neglecting my whole body. I saw my body only through my pain, which caused me to hate my body over time. I can now see myself outside of my body, and am working day by day with my meditation to become a happier person living with chronic pain.”

The authors also found that practicing mindfulness helped participants create vivid imagery to enhance their mood and decrease pain. One patient noted:

“I hear a sound in the distance and felt it was bearing my pain away, replacing it with a joyful ‘lifting’ of my spirits.”

While no miracle treatment exists, mindfulness can help improve patient quality of life.

–Lauren Goldberg, Contributing Writer, The Trauma and Mental Health Report.

–Chief Editor: Robert T. Muller, The Trauma and Mental Health Report.

Copyright Robert T. Muller.

This article was originally published on Psychology Today

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Using Mindfulness with Opioid Addicted Chronic Pain Patients

August 24, 201700Addiction, Chronic Pain, Featured news, Health, Mindfulness, Therapy, Therapy News August, 17

Source: frankieleon at flickr, Creative Commons

In March 2016, legislative bodies in Maine put a bill forward to combat the state’s rising opioid addiction problem. New restrictions on opioids for chronic pain require doctors to limit prescriptions to just 15 days, and to encourage doctors to consider non-medicinal forms of treatment.

Treatment of chronic pain involves a delicate balance between managing pain relief and risk of drug addiction or abuse. Opiates have been used for centuries to treat acute and chronic pain. There is little debate over the short-term benefits of medication, but their use for chronic, non-malignant pain is controversial.

Chronic pain is a debilitating lifelong illness, affecting more than six million Canadians. The National Institute of Health defines chronic pain as lasting for at least six months, and creating both physical and mental strain on the victim’s quality of life. Patients may experience fear, depression, hopelessness, and anxiety in coping with their pain.

At the annual 2013 American Psychiatric Association meeting, pain specialists debated how to properly treat chronic pain and explored new forms of non-medicinal treatment.

Jennifer Potter from the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Texas advocates continued use of opioid prescriptions, but cautions doctors to examine potential risk factors for substance abuse.

“The vast majority of people with chronic pain do not go on to develop an opioid addiction, so it’s important for patients to understand that if this medication benefits you, it’s not necessarily a concern. We can’t let our response to the rise in prescription drug abuse to be denying access to all people in pain who can benefit from opioids.”

But a 2015 study by Kevin Vowles and colleagues from the University of New Mexico found that, on average, 25% of chronic pain patients experience opioid misuse and 10% have an opioid addiction. So, we also need non-medicinal treatment options to care for lifelong pain.