Psychological factors in chronic pain: Evolution and revolution.

Abstract

Research has demonstrated the importance of psychological factors in coping, quality of life, and disability in chronic pain. Furthermore, the contributions of psychology in the effectiveness of treatment of chronic pain patients have received empirical support. The authors describe a biopsychosocial model of chronic pain and provide an update on research implicating the importance of people's appraisals of their symptoms, their ability to self-manage pain and related problems, and their fears about pain and injury that motivate efforts to avoid exacerbation of symptoms and further injury or reinjury. They provide a selected review to illustrate treatment outcome research, methodological issues, practical, and clinical issues to identify promising directions. Although there remain obstacles, there are also opportunities for psychologists to contribute to improved understanding of pain and treatment of people who suffer from chronic pain. The authors conclude by noting that pain has received a tremendous amount of attention culminating in the passage of a law by the U.S. Congress designating the period 2001-2011 as the "The Decade of Pain Control and Research.

The Psychological Flexibility Model: A Basis for Integration and Progress in Psychological Approaches to Chronic Pain Management

“…Some may say that the appropriate choice of model underlying CBT today is the biopsychosocial (BPS) model. 21,78 The BPS model can help integrate at a level of multidisciplinary cooperation and certainly it has great advantages over biomedical reductionism. We certainly agree that work in separate fields in the study of pain should integrate.…”

Comorbidity of Chronic Pain and Mental Health Disorders: The Biopsychosocial Perspective.

“…Turk and colleagues, for example, have revealed that patients with diseases and syndromes as varied as back pain, headache, and metastatic cancer may display comparable adaptation patterns, whereas patients with the same diagnosis may actually show great variability in their degree of disability (e.g., Turk, Okifuji, Sinclair, & Starz, 1998). As Turk and Gatchel (1999) have indicated, the traditional approach of "lumping" patients with the same medical diagnosis or set of symptoms together (e.g., fibromyalgia, LBP, TMD), and then to treat them all the same way, is not appropriate. That is because many of these common diagnoses are relatively gross categories, and there may be unique individual BPS differences of patients who fall under these generic diagnoses.…”

Post-traumatic stress disorder moderates the relationship between trauma exposure and chronic pain

“…The biopsychosocial model of pain suggests that medical illness, individual life history, environmental factors, and social relationships are all important for understanding and treating chronic pain (Turk & Okifuji, 2011). …”