COVER MENTAL HEALTH Mindful practice I Identifying signs and symptoms of mental illness in patients B y M ike S trauS dialogue. Mental illness isn’t just a mental problem – it also creates physical symptoms that chiroprac-tors may often see in their practices. This is why Canadian Chiropractor spoke to two of British Co-lumbia’s leading experts on the issue – one an ex-pert of the mind, the other an expert of the body. MIKE STRAUS is a freelance writer living in Kelowna, British Columbia. You can reach him at [email protected] 24 Canadian Chiropractor April 2015 Signs and symptoms This increased prevalence of mental illness in chronic pain patients means it’s important for www.canadianchiropractor.ca Photo: Fotolia n many cases, mental illness doesn’t occur in the mind alone. It also produces physical symptoms like joint and limb pain, gastroin-testinal distress and appetite changes. In chi-ropractic practice, mental illness can co-occur with any number of physical complaints. Understanding mental illness, then, can prove valuable in treating its physical symptoms – and with interdisciplinary approaches to medical prob-lems gaining in popularity, chiropractors have much to gain by developing a basic understanding of mental illness. The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto says that one in every five Canadians will Mental illness experience a mental illness or substance abuse costs Canada $51 billion problem in his or her lifetime. That means approx-imately seven million Canadians will suffer from every year mental illness at some point. Mental illnesses cost Canada’s economy a staggering $51 billion every year. For this reason, medical professionals of all kinds, and the nation at large, have a vested interest in promoting mental health initiatives. In chiro-practic, that involves knowing how to identify mental illness, knowing how to broach the subject of mental illness with patients and having a thor-ough grasp of the available solutions for this very real problem. Mental health advocates maintain that if society is to effectively address mental illness, doctors and professionals of all medical disciplines will need to join the larger public health movement around this issue and create a space for interdisciplinary Mental illness and chronic pain Dr. Jay Robinson is a chiropractor in Burnaby, B.C. and the president of the British Columbia Chiro-practic Association. He says mental illness is some-thing chiropractors commonly see among chronic pain patients. “There’s definitely a connection between mental illness and chronic pain,” Robinson says. “It’s common among chronic pain patients to feel de-pressed. These patients can get frustrated even though care may be working, so they abandon care for something else. It’s a big problem.” Psychologist Dr. Susan Holtzman agrees with Robinson. Holtzman is the lead investigator of the Health Psychology Laboratory at the University of British Columbia’s satellite campus in Kelowna. She is a health psychologist who studies chronic pain. “We now know, after decades of research, that there is a very close link between chronic pain and mental health difficulties. The strongest example of this link is the connection between chronic pain and depression. We see much higher rates of de-pression among chronic pain patients, and we see higher rates of chronic pain among depression patients,” Holtzman says.
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