Comorbidity of pain and anxiety disorders.

The comorbidity of anxiety disorders with pain has received little research attention even though recent studies show that these disorders are as likely to co-occur with chronic pain conditions as depressive disorder. Comorbid anxiety has implications for the impact and outcome of pain conditions. Even though it may be intuitively plausible to suppose that the anxiety occurs in the context of a preexisting pain condition, there is evidence for a reverse causal link and shared risk factors, including distal events occurring in childhood.