Study Shows Anger Makes Chronic Pain Worse

By Crystal Lindell

A new study claims that the angrier someone is about their chronic pain, the worse their pain will be. But to be honest, the whole thing kind of pisses me off.

All kidding aside, the research published in The Journal of Pain, looked at four distinct “multidimensional anger profiles” in pain sufferers.

Researchers followed 735 adult patients with different types of chronic pain, assessing how they experience, express and control anger, and how strongly they feel about being wronged by their situation. About a third of the participants completed follow-up assessments 5 months later.

They found that people with medium to high levels of anger and feelings of “perceived injustice” had some of the most severe pain. They reported greater pain intensity, more widespread pain, and higher levels of disability and emotional distress. 

In contrast, people who seemed to manage their anger more effectively and viewed their condition with less resentment tended to have less pain..

However, the researchers did not clarify which treatments the patients had access to or how being denied treatment impacted their pain. Instead, they encouraged doctors to make an “early assessment” of patients that emphasizes “the need for tailored, anger-focused, patient-specific interventions.”

One of the biggest issues I have with this study is that it sets up doctors to blame the patient’s demeanor and mood for their physical pain – something they are often already prone to do. 

I can hear the in-office conversations now.

“Have you tried being less angry?” the doctor asks, as though he’s offering an actual treatment option to the patient sitting on a cold exam table.

The question would rightly be infuriating, which would then just lead the doctor to type in their notes that the patient’s pain is partly caused by their inherent anger and sense of injustice.

Leaving the insulted patient in a state of untreated limbo. 

Yes, people whose pain is left untreated or poorly treated are more likely to be justifiably angry overall. And they are especially more likely to feel like their pain is unjust.

In fact, anger is a very appropriate response to such suffering. It inspires you to push those around you to help you find relief. And unfortunately, it’s often required to get real help from medical doctors. 

In the study's conclusion, the authors admit as much.

"Anger is not inherently harmful - when adaptive, it can be a strong motivator, helping individuals set boundaries and navigate challenges," wrote lead author Gadi Gilam, PhD, a psychologist and neuroscientist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. "Rather than eliminating anger, interventions should harness this adaptive potential while mitigating its harmfulness."

Perhaps they could also focus on interventions that actually treat physical pain? Especially since the most effective treatment for many types of pain – opioids – has been severely restricted over the last decade.

Anyone who tells you they’d be calm and accepting while dealing with chronic pain, while at the same time knowing there was an effective treatment they weren’t allowed to have, is lying to you.

It’s actually very normal to be angry in that situation and to feel a strong sense of injustice. The situation itself is not just. 

I have long said that lack of sleep will make you crazy so much faster than you expect, and a version of that applies to pain as well. Unrelenting pain will make you angry so much faster than you expect.

Rather than trying to treat the anger, doctors should focus on the source, and treat the pain itself.