Pain Matters

      The New York Times has a piece out about a man who, after years of battling to get the workers compensation and Social Security disability benefits he deserved, committed suicide. The reason he had such a hard time getting benefits was that he had the misfortune of developing a chronic pain syndrome after a very real on the job injury. His MRIs and other tests were negative but he was still in horrible pain. Because his tests were negative his pain meant nothing to Social Security. However, if you’ve worked long with the Social Security disability program and take your work seriously you know there is such a thing as chronic pain syndrome and that it’s a terrible thing with little correlation to physical tests although it clearly correlates with psychiatric exams. Those psychiatric effects may be more a result of the pain than its cause. This man’s suicide is proof of the high stakes in Social Security disability determinations.