Psychogenic pain is

physical pain Pain is a distressing feeling often caused by intense or damaging stimuli. The International Association for the Study of Pain defines pain as "an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with, or resembling that associated with, ...

that is caused, increased, or prolonged by mental, emotional, or behavioral factors. Headache, back pain, or stomach pain are some of the most common types of psychogenic pain. Commonly it accompanies or is induced by

social rejection Social rejection occurs when an individual is deliberately excluded from a social relationship or social interaction. The topic includes ''interpersonal rejection'' (or peer rejection), ''romantic rejection'' and ''familial estrangement''. A pers ...

broken heart Broken heart (also known as a heartbreak or heartache) is a metaphor for the intense emotional stress or pain one feels at experiencing great and deep longing. The concept is cross-cultural, often cited with reference to unreciprocated or lost ...

grief Grief is the response to loss, particularly to the loss of someone or some living thing that has died, to which a bond or affection was formed. Although conventionally focused on the emotional response to loss, grief also has physical, cogniti ...

lovesickness Lovesickness refers to an affliction that can produce negative feelings when deeply in love, during the absence of a loved one or when love is unrequited. The term "lovesickness" is rarely used in modern medicine and psychology, though new rese ...

, 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 Suffering, or pain in a broad sense, may be an experience of unpleasantness or aversion, possibly associated with the perception of harm or threat of harm in an individual. Suffering is the basic element that makes up the negative valence of ...

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:

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 Chronic pain is classified as pain that lasts longer than three to six months. In medicine, the distinction between acute and chronic pain is sometimes determined by the amount of time since onset. Two commonly used markers are pain that continue ...

under the name of ''persistent somatoform pain disorder'' or ''functional pain syndrome''. Causes may be linked to

stress Stress may refer to: Science and medicine * Stress (biology), an organism's response to a stressor such as an environmental condition * Stress (linguistics), relative emphasis or prominence given to a syllable in a word, or to a word in a phrase ...

, unexpressed emotional conflicts, psychosocial problems, or various

mental disorder A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitti ...

s. Some specialists believe that psychogenic chronic pain exists as a protective distraction to keep dangerous repressed emotions such as anger or rage unconscious.Sarno, John E., MD, et al., ''The Divided Mind: The Epidemic of Mindbody Disorders'' 2006 () It remains controversial, however, that chronic pain might arise purely from emotional causes.

Diagnosis

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

Treatment

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 Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a psycho-social intervention that aims to reduce symptoms of various mental health conditions, primarily depression and anxiety disorders. CBT focuses on challenging and changing cognitive distortions (suc ...

, acceptance and commitment therapy, or forms commonly used for chronic pain treatments. Interventional techniques can also be used. 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. 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 A mood disorder, also known as an affective disorder, is any of a group of conditions of mental and behavioral disorder where a disturbance in the person's mood is the main underlying feature. The classification is in the '' Diagnostic and St ...

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.

References

External links

{{Mental and behavioural disorders, selected = neurotic Pain Symptoms and signs of mental disorders

Diagnosis

Treatment

See also

References

External links