When someone has pain in the absence of any physiological cause that person has?

Psychogenic pain is physical pain that is caused, increased, or prolonged by mental, emotional, or behavioral factors.[2][3][4]

Headache, back pain, or stomach pain are some of the most common types of psychogenic pain.[2] Commonly it accompanies or is induced by social rejection, broken heart, grief, lovesickness, regret, or other such emotional events. This pain can also be caused by psychological factors such as anxiety and depression, factors which can affect the onset and severity of pain experienced.

Sufferers are often stigmatized, because both medical professionals and the general public tend to think that pain from psychological source is not "real".

The International Association for the Study of Pain defines pain as "an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage" (emphasis added). In the note accompanying that definition, the following can be found about pain that happens for psychological reasons:[5]

Many people report pain in the absence of tissue damage or any likely pathophysiological cause; usually this happens for psychological reasons. There is usually no way to distinguish their experience from that due to tissue damage if we take the subjective report. If they regard their experience as pain and if they report it in the same ways as pain caused by tissue damage, it should be accepted as pain.

Medicine refers also to psychogenic pain or psychalgia as a form of chronic pain under the name of persistent somatoform pain disorder[6] or functional pain syndrome.[7] Causes may be linked to stress, unexpressed emotional conflicts, psychosocial problems, or various mental disorders. Some specialists believe that psychogenic chronic pain exists as a protective distraction to keep dangerous repressed emotions such as anger or rage unconscious.[8]

It remains controversial, however, that chronic pain might arise purely from emotional causes.[9]

Diagnosis[edit]

There is no specific way of testing for psychogenic pain making it difficult to assess. There are many different criteria and factors considered for psychogenic pain diagnosis.

• Presence of pain
• Intense pain or suffering
• Impairment of everyday functions
• Symptoms ruled as unintentional
• Symptoms do not fit criteria for other potential somatic or mental disorders[10]

Treatment[edit]

For many patients a combination of psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy can help to alleviate or treat the symptoms of psychogenic pain. These treatments can include Cognitive behavioral therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, or forms commonly used for chronic pain treatments. Interventional techniques can also be used.[11] Treatments can address underlying feelings and emotion conflicts that can lead to psychogenic pain as well as other potential causes of dysfunction with behavior, affect, and coping that can be seen in patients.[12] In cases where therapy and medication do not show results, some may consider psycho/neurosurgeries in treating psychogenic pain. These surgeries target portions of the brain associated with mood disorders and pain. Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) can also be used through stimulating parts of the brain related to behavior and emotion to relieve the psychological cause of the pain.[11]

See also[edit]

• Pain disorder
• Psychogenic disease
• Psychological trauma
• Psychoneuroimmunology
• Psychosomatic medicine
• Tension myositis syndrome

References[edit]

1. ^ Psychalgia - Physical pain that is possibly of psychological origin. American Heritage Medical Dictionary. But see also psychalgia in the sense of psychological pain.
2. ^ a b "Psychogenic & Psychological Pain&". Cleveland Clinic.
3. ^ "Psychogenic pain". Biology-Online Dictionary. 7 October 2019.
4. ^ Merskey and Spear defined psychogenic pain as "... pain which is independent of peripheral stimulation or of damage to the nervous system and due to emotional factors, or else pain in which any peripheral change (e.f. muscle tension) is a consequence of emotional factors." Merskey, H., Spear F.G. (1967). Pain, psychological and psychiatric aspects. London. Bailliere, Tindall & Cassell. ISBN 0-7020-0006-X
5. ^ IASP Pain Terminology
6. ^ "ICD-10 Version:2010".
7. ^ "International Association for the Study of Pain | Functional Pain Syndromes: Presentation and Pathophysiology". www.iasp-pain.org. Archived from the original on 2011-08-22.
8. ^ Sarno, John E., MD, et al., The Divided Mind: The Epidemic of Mindbody Disorders 2006 (ISBN 0-06-085178-3)
9. ^ Stephen Tyrer, Psychosomatic pain, The British Journal of Psychiatry (2006) 188: 91-93
10. ^ Isagulyan, Emil D.; Makashova, Elizaveta S.; Myasnikova, Lyubov' K.; Sergeenko, Elizaveta V.; Aslakhanova, Karina S.; Tomskiy, Alexey A.; Voloshin, Alexey G.; Kashcheev, Alexey A. (2022-01-01), Chernov, Mikhail F.; Rzaev, Jamil A.; Martínez-Álvarez, Roberto (eds.), "Chapter 7 - Psychogenic (nociplastic) pain: Current state of diagnosis, treatment options, and potentials of neurosurgical management", Progress in Brain Research, Neurosurgical Management of Psychiatric Disorders, Part B, Elsevier, vol. 272, pp. 105–123, retrieved 2022-10-09
11. ^ a b Isagulyan, Emil D.; Makashova, Elizaveta S.; Myasnikova, Lyubov' K.; Sergeenko, Elizaveta V.; Aslakhanova, Karina S.; Tomskiy, Alexey A.; Voloshin, Alexey G.; Kashcheev, Alexey A. (2022-01-01), Chernov, Mikhail F.; Rzaev, Jamil A.; Martínez-Álvarez, Roberto (eds.), "Chapter 7 - Psychogenic (nociplastic) pain: Current state of diagnosis, treatment options, and potentials of neurosurgical management", Progress in Brain Research, Neurosurgical Management of Psychiatric Disorders, Part B, Elsevier, vol. 272, pp. 105–123, retrieved 2022-09-30
12. ^ Wasan, Ajay D.; Alpay, Menekse (2008-01-01), Stern, Theodore A.; Rosenbaum, Jerrold F.; Fava, Maurizio; Biederman, Joseph (eds.), "CHAPTER 78 - Pain", Massachusetts General Hospital Comprehensive Clinical Psychiatry, Philadelphia: Mosby, pp. 1067–1079, ISBN 978-0-323-04743-2, retrieved 2022-10-09

External links[edit]

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