Abstract
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and chronic pain commonly co-occur among military members and veterans. These conditions increase risk for medical discharge from the military and increase burden on the health care systems that serve military members and veterans. This chapter provides information about the prevalence of these conditions in military and veteran populations. Common risk factors are discussed, including psychological and physical traumas that are encountered in military duties. The chapter then describes interventions and recommendations for treating military members and veterans who have PTSD and chronic pain. Separate guidelines for treating PTSD and chronic pain recommend cognitive-behavioral therapies, and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medications and duloxetine are recommended as pharmacotherapies to treat lower back pain. The chapter also describes promising integrated treatments for addressing the co-occurrence of PTSD and chronic pain. These include the use of multimodal interventions within multidisciplinary treatment teams. Two case examples are provided to demonstrate how PTSD and chronic pain treatments can be implemented among military members and veterans. These case examples highlight common challenges in treating these comorbid conditions. Suggestions are made for future research, including the need to improve treatment engagement and retention and to further test the efficacy of multimodal treatments for PTSD and chronic pain.
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Schumm, J.A., Pittsenbarger, L.J., McClellan, C.A. (2022). Post-traumatic Stress Disorder and Chronic Pain Among Military Members and Veterans. In: James, L.C., O’Donohue, W., Wendel, J. (eds) Clinical Health Psychology in Military and Veteran Settings. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12063-3_10
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