By far the most popular form of chronic pain relief is medication, which can lead to addiction. There are three primary contributors for addiction: psychosocial, drug, and genetics. Psychosocial addiction includes things like depression, personality disorder, stress, and etcetera. Drug addiction is associated with how the body becomes dependent on the brain receiving those happy, pleasant feeling chemicals. and finally genetic addiction is has a lot to due with personality. Is the person a risk taker, for example.

Dr. Randale C. Sechrest’s article, Managing Addiction in Chronic Pain Management, outlines the 7 steps of drug addiction and says that several factors determine if a patient with chronic pain is likely to also become an addict.