This is PEDYACAST.

Welcome to Pediacast, a pediatric podcast for parents.

And now, direct from the campus of nationwide children's, here is your host, Dr. Mike.

Hello, everyone, and welcome.

Once again to Pediacast.

It is a pediatric podcast for moms and dads.

This is Dr. Mike, coming to you from nationwide children's hospital.

We're in Columbus, Ohio.

It's episode 489 for May 6th, 2021.

We're calling this one Managing Chronic Pain.

I want to welcome all of you to the program.

So May is Mental Health Month, and we typically include an episode this time of year

that spotlights a mental health topic in an effort to promote awareness and understanding

of common mental health conditions, things like anxiety and depression.

This year, we're going to take a bit of a different

twist and talk about a condition that has both a physical and a mental component, and it's one

that impacts mental health and can result in heightened levels of anxiety and sometimes depression.

That topic is chronic pain, which has a simple definition of pain

lasting longer than three months. It's also a common condition in the pediatric population,

with one study showing nearly one third of all kids and teenagers experiencing an episode

of pain that lasts longer than three months.

And it turns out that three months is a dividing line in how long pain should last at its

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