2013 Volume 20 Issue 1 Pages 48-51
We report a case of chronic postoperative pain that was alleviated by cognitive behavioral therapy at our pain clinic, which also removed the patient's dependence on large doses of an antianxiety drug. The patient was a 47-year-old woman who had undergone cholecystectomy for cholelithiasis 5 years before and had been experiencing abdominal pain since then. The pain was persistent and worsened spasmodically. Therefore besides receiving treatment at another pain clinic, she had often visited the emergency department of another hospital. When she consulted our department, she had taken up to 12 tablets per day of etizolam (0.5 mg), an antianxiety drug. At first we treated her with continuous epidural block and local irradiation with linear-polarized near-infrared rays, which could hardly alleviate the pain. We diagnosed the case as etizolam dependence accompanying chronic pain and introduced cognitive behavioral therapy 6 months after the first examination. As a result, the etizolam dose could be decreased gradually, and the patient restored bright expressions on her face. Six months after introduction of the therapy, the pain was alleviated and the patient could stop taking large doses of etizolam.
