How do you find chronic pain affecting other aspects of health (mental health, for example)?

Chronic Pain can affect your psychological and physiological well being. Untreated or under treated pain can cause depression anxiety and feelings of hopelessness. A person feels there is no end to their suffering. Nurses should always assess and evaluate pain and ask how are they coping and what do they do to ease or make the pain tolerable.

Pain , especially in the elderly, has a significant impact on agitation, mood, sleep and appetite. As a mental health nurse I found that when I was called out to a nursing home on reports that a patient had become agitated and aggressive, that putting them on Tylenol BID eliminated nearly all aggression.