Proving a Texas Social Security disability case based on chronic pain

Many of our Texas Social Security disability clients suffer from chronic pain. Chronic pain — pain that is constant or intermittent and intense — can be disabling. But pain cases are challenging because pain cannot be measured by scientific instruments. Pain cases often come down to how credible the Social Security Administration decision-maker finds the claimant’s description of pain to be.

If you suffer from chronic pain, the Social Security Administration will evaluate the extent to which your pain prevents you from working by answering the following questions.

  1. Does objective evidence show you have a “medically determinable impairment” that could reasonably be expected to cause your pain?
  2. If so, how intense and persistent is your pain and how does it limit your ability to do basic work activities?

In assessing the intensity and persistence of your pain, your credibility can be vitally important. To decide if you are credible, the Social Security Administration will consider whether your statements about your pain are consistent with the medical evidence and other evidence in your case.

Objective evidence of a “medically determinable impairment”

You must have a medically determinable impairment that could cause your pain. A medically determinable impairment is one that results from anatomical, physiological, or psychological abnormalities that can be shown by objective evidence. Objective evidence consists of medically acceptable clinical and laboratory diagnostic techniques.
Without objective evidence, just claiming you suffer from pain is insufficient to prove you are disabled. Complaints of pain alone or in combination with other symptoms cannot be the basis for a finding of disability, no matter how genuine the complaints are, unless there are medical signs and laboratory findings demonstrating the existence of medically determinable physical or mental impairments that could reasonably be expected to produce the pain.

Intensity, persistence, and limiting effects of pain

If your medical records establish that you have a medically determinable impairment that could reasonably be expected to produce your pain, the Social Security Administration next evaluates the intensity and persistence of your pain to determine how it limits your capacity for work. The Social Security Administration decision maker will consider all of the available evidence, including your history and medical findings, and statements from you, your treating or examining doctors, or other persons about how your pain affects you. The decision maker will also consider the medical opinions of the doctors who have treated or examined you.

In evaluating your pain, the Social Security Administration considers:

  • Your daily activities
  • The location, duration, frequency, and intensity of your pain
  • What causes or aggravates your pain
  • The medications you take or have taken to treat your pain, include the type, dosage, effectiveness and side effects
  • What treatment, other than medication, you receive or have received for your pain.
  • Other steps you taken or have taken to relieve your pain (e.g., lying flat on your back, standing for 15 to 20 minutes every hour, sleeping on a board, etc.)
  • Other factors concerning your functional limitations and restrictions due to your pain.

Because pain is subjective and difficult to measure, the Social Security Administration is required to take into account any limitations that you, your treating or examining doctors, or other persons report that are consistent with objective medical evidence and other evidence.

Your pain may be more severe than the medical evidence suggests it should be. Medical evidence for a number of conditions, such as back pain and arthritis, have a poor correlation with symptoms. The decision maker may not reject your statements about the intensity and persistence of your pain or its effects on your ability to work just because they are more severe than expected considering the medical evidence. In this situation, the decision maker must consider the credibility of your statements based on a consideration of the entire case record.

Your credibility

Your credibility is the degree to which your statements about your pain can be believed and accepted as true. Two important factors that can enhance the credibility of your statements about your pain are:

  • The consistency of your statements with each other and with other information in your case record. The Social Security Administration decision maker will examine all your statements about your pain that are in your case record. These may include statements recorded by your doctors in your medical records, statements you made in Social Security forms and questionnaires that you filled out during the application process, statements you made in connection with claims for other types of disability benefits, and testimony at your hearing. Consistency in your statements makes them more credible. But inconsistency does not necessarily mean that your pain complaints are not credible if the inconsistency can be explained. For example, pain can fluctuate over time and treatments can stop working. The adjudicator will also compare your statements to reports and observations of other persons concerning your daily activities, behavior, and efforts to work. This includes any observations recorded by Social Security Administration employees.
  • A history of seeking and following treatment for your pain. Evidence that shows you sought treatment for your pain and followed whatever treatments were prescribed lends support to your allegations of intense and persistent pain. Your continued efforts to obtain pain relief, such as by consulting pain specialists, and trying different medications, or treatments enhance the credibility of your pain complaints. On the other hand, the Social Security decision maker may be less inclined to believe your statements about the severity of your pain if you have been lax in seeking treatment, or if the medical reports or records show that you are not following the treatment as prescribed and there are no good reasons for this failure.

Texas Social Security disability assistance available

If you believe you are disabled by chronic pain, are not already represented by a Texas Social Security attorney, and want our evaluation, give us a brief description of your claim using the form to the right. Or you may contact us at:

Morgan & Weisbrod
Texas Social Security disability lawyers
with offices in Dallas, Austin (Georgetown), and Houston

E-mail
Phone: 800-800-6353