Does My Medication Contribute to The Onset of Depression in My Injury Claim?

It is quite possible that taking certain medications to treat your chronic pain may lead to your experiencing depressive symptoms.

Talk therapy, called cognitive behavioral therapy, can fight mild to moderate depression. This type of treatment is provided by a clinical psychologist, usually a Ph. D. level professional. Masters level therapists have a hard time getting authorized and paid although their work has many times contributed to relief of depressive symptoms.

These days it is very difficult to get your orthopedic doctor to talk to your clinical psychologist to coordinate treatment. Why is this so? The idea of teamwork to help the whole person is not very popular these days. Yet that is exactly what we need to help the person in chronic pain and in depression to come out of this vicious cycle. A Web MD article published on October 20, 2019, addresses this issue directly:

“Give anti-depressants a few weeks of use to take effect. Good follow up with your doctor is important to evaluate their effectiveness and make dosage adjustments. If the first medication tries does not help, there is a good chance another will. The combination of talk therapy and medication appears particularly effective.”

The takeaway from these words is that you need to push for whatever treatment you need to get your life back in order. Push your doctor to be part of your medical treatment. And do not take no for an answer. And, by the way, a good and aggressive attorney who is in your corner is a good person to add to your team.