- Section 1 The Subject Matter of and Approach to Psychiatry
- 1.3 Psychiatry as a worldwide public health problem
- 1.4 The history of psychiatry as a medical specialty
- 1.5 Ethics and values
- 1.6 The psychiatrist as a manager
- 1.7 Descriptive phenomenology
- 1.8 Assessment
- 1.9 Diagnosis and classification
- 1.10 From science to practice
- Section 2 The Scientific Basis of Psychiatric Aetiology
- 2.3 The contribution of neurosciences
- 2.4 The contribution of genetics
- 2.5 The contribution of psychological science
- 2.6 The contribution of social sciences
- 2.7 The contribution of epidemiology to psychiatric aetiology
- Section 3 Psychodynamic Contributions to Psychiatry
- Section 4 Clinical Syndromes of Adult Psychiatry
- 4.4 Persistent delusional symptoms and disorders
- 4.5 Mood disorders
- 4.6 Stress-related and adjustment disorders
- 4.7 Anxiety disorders
- Section 5 Psychiatry and Medicine
- 5.1 Mind–body dualism, psychiatry, and medicine
- 5.2 Somatoform disorders and other causes of medically unexplained symptoms
- 5.2.1 Somatoform disorders and functional symptoms
- 5.2.2 Epidemiology of somatoform disorders and other causes of unexplained medical symptoms
- 5.2.3 Somatization disorder and related disorders
- 5.2.4 Conversion and dissociation disorders
- 5.2.5 Hypochondriasis (health anxiety)
- 5.2.6. Pain disorder
- 5.2.7 Chronic fatigue syndrome
- 5.2.8 Body dysmorphic disorder
- 5.2.9 Factitious disorder and malingering
- 5.2.10 Neurasthenia
- 5.3 Medical and surgical conditions and treatments associated with psychiatric disorders
- 5.4 Obstetric and gynaecological conditions associated with psychiatric disorder
- 5.5 Management of psychiatric disorders in medically ill patients, including emergencies
- 5.6 Health psychology
- 5.7 The organization of psychiatric services for general hospital departments
- Section 6 Treatment Methods in Psychiatry
- 6.2 Somatic treatments
- Section 7 Social Psychiatry and Service Provision
- Section 8 The Psychiatry of Old Age
- Section 9 Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Pain disorder
- Chapter:
- Pain disorder
- Author(s):
Sidney Benjamin
and Stella Morris
- DOI:
- 10.1093/med/9780199696758.003.0132
Persistent somatoform pain disorder is an ICD-10 diagnosis, which is included in the group of somatoform disorders. The term pain disorder is used in DSM-IV, and for convenience that is the term used here to refer to both classifications, unless a distinction needs to be made. This chapter aims to clarify the relationship of pain to mental disorders, the diagnosis of pain disorder and its differential diagnosis, and then considers how psychosocial factors contribute to pain, the treatments that stem from them, and the psychiatrist's potential contribution. Pain has been defined by the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) as ‘an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage or described in terms of such damage’. ‘Pain’ is used here in this sense; it is not used primarily to indicate mental distress or anguish. As a perception, pain is essentially a subjective experience, and is directly accessible only to the patient. By contrast, tissue damage can be assessed by others, and its relationship with the subjective characteristics of pain have been shown to be variable, modulated by social and cultural experience, as well as within the central and peripheral nervous system.
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- Section 1 The Subject Matter of and Approach to Psychiatry
- 1.3 Psychiatry as a worldwide public health problem
- 1.4 The history of psychiatry as a medical specialty
- 1.5 Ethics and values
- 1.6 The psychiatrist as a manager
- 1.7 Descriptive phenomenology
- 1.8 Assessment
- 1.9 Diagnosis and classification
- 1.10 From science to practice
- Section 2 The Scientific Basis of Psychiatric Aetiology
- 2.3 The contribution of neurosciences
- 2.4 The contribution of genetics
- 2.5 The contribution of psychological science
- 2.6 The contribution of social sciences
- 2.7 The contribution of epidemiology to psychiatric aetiology
- Section 3 Psychodynamic Contributions to Psychiatry
- Section 4 Clinical Syndromes of Adult Psychiatry
- 4.4 Persistent delusional symptoms and disorders
- 4.5 Mood disorders
- 4.6 Stress-related and adjustment disorders
- 4.7 Anxiety disorders
- Section 5 Psychiatry and Medicine
- 5.1 Mind–body dualism, psychiatry, and medicine
- 5.2 Somatoform disorders and other causes of medically unexplained symptoms
- 5.2.1 Somatoform disorders and functional symptoms
- 5.2.2 Epidemiology of somatoform disorders and other causes of unexplained medical symptoms
- 5.2.3 Somatization disorder and related disorders
- 5.2.4 Conversion and dissociation disorders
- 5.2.5 Hypochondriasis (health anxiety)
- 5.2.6. Pain disorder
- 5.2.7 Chronic fatigue syndrome
- 5.2.8 Body dysmorphic disorder
- 5.2.9 Factitious disorder and malingering
- 5.2.10 Neurasthenia
- 5.3 Medical and surgical conditions and treatments associated with psychiatric disorders
- 5.4 Obstetric and gynaecological conditions associated with psychiatric disorder
- 5.5 Management of psychiatric disorders in medically ill patients, including emergencies
- 5.6 Health psychology
- 5.7 The organization of psychiatric services for general hospital departments
- Section 6 Treatment Methods in Psychiatry
- 6.2 Somatic treatments
- Section 7 Social Psychiatry and Service Provision
- Section 8 The Psychiatry of Old Age
- Section 9 Child and Adolescent Psychiatry