Niklaus Egloff1, Rafael J A Cámara2, Roland von Känel3, Nicole Klingler4, Elizabeth Marti5, Marie-Louise Gander Ferrari3. 1. Department of General Internal Medicine, Division of Psychosomatic Medicine, Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, CH-3010 Bern, Switzerland; Department of Clinical Research, University of Bern, 3012 Bern, Switzerland. Electronic address: nik.egloff@bluewin.ch. 2. Institute of Medical Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Informatics, University Medical Centre of Johannes Gutenberg University, D-55131 Mainz, Germany. 3. Department of General Internal Medicine, Division of Psychosomatic Medicine, Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, CH-3010 Bern, Switzerland; Department of Clinical Research, University of Bern, 3012 Bern, Switzerland. 4. Department of General Internal Medicine, Division of Psychosomatic Medicine, Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, CH-3010 Bern, Switzerland. 5. Department of General Internal Medicine and Clinic for Orthopedics, Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, CH-3010 Bern, Switzerland.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: In psychiatry, pain disorders not explained by structural lesions have been classified for decades as somatoform pain disorders, the underlying concept being somatization. In a parallel move, somatic medicine has defined an expanding group of similar pain disorders, known as functional pain syndromes. Functional pain syndromes are characterized by enhanced pain sensitivity. The aim of our study was to investigate the proportion of patients with somatoform pain disorders who also meet the criteria of functional pain syndromes and the extent to which patients with somatoform pain disorders also show enhanced pain sensitivity. METHODS: Data on pain sensitivity in 120 hospitalized patients were obtained by means of two algometric methods. The group of patients with somatoform pain disorders was further divided into two subsets: patients with and those without a co-diagnosis of a functional pain syndrome. Patients with nociceptive pain served as control group. RESULTS: Of the 120 in-patients selected, 67 fulfilled the criteria of a somatoform pain disorder of which 41 (61%) also met the co-diagnosis of a functional pain syndrome. Patients with somatoform pain disorder differed from controls in that they showed enhanced pain sensitivity, irrespective of whether a functional pain syndrome was concomitantly present (P<.001). CONCLUSIONS: Somatoform pain disorders show considerable overlap with functional pain syndromes, including enhanced pain sensitivity. This suggests the relevance of integrating somatosensory aspects of pain into a modified understanding of somatoform pain disorders.
OBJECTIVE: In psychiatry, pain disorders not explained by structural lesions have been classified for decades as somatoform pain disorders, the underlying concept being somatization. In a parallel move, somatic medicine has defined an expanding group of similar pain disorders, known as functional pain syndromes. Functional pain syndromes are characterized by enhanced pain sensitivity. The aim of our study was to investigate the proportion of patients with somatoform pain disorders who also meet the criteria of functional pain syndromes and the extent to which patients with somatoform pain disorders also show enhanced pain sensitivity. METHODS: Data on pain sensitivity in 120 hospitalized patients were obtained by means of two algometric methods. The group of patients with somatoform pain disorders was further divided into two subsets: patients with and those without a co-diagnosis of a functional pain syndrome. Patients with nociceptive pain served as control group. RESULTS: Of the 120 in-patients selected, 67 fulfilled the criteria of a somatoform pain disorder of which 41 (61%) also met the co-diagnosis of a functional pain syndrome. Patients with somatoform pain disorder differed from controls in that they showed enhanced pain sensitivity, irrespective of whether a functional pain syndrome was concomitantly present (P<.001). CONCLUSIONS: Somatoform pain disorders show considerable overlap with functional pain syndromes, including enhanced pain sensitivity. This suggests the relevance of integrating somatosensory aspects of pain into a modified understanding of somatoform pain disorders.
Authors: Rafael J A Cámara; Christian Merz; Barbara Wegmann; Stefanie Stauber; Roland von Känel; Niklaus Egloff Journal: Pain Res Treat Date: 2016-03-21
Authors: Julian A Stewart; Simone Mailler-Burch; Darius Müller; Martina Studer; Roland von Känel; Martin Grosse Holtforth; Kyrill Schwegler; Niklaus Egloff Journal: J Pain Res Date: 2019-07-10 Impact factor: 3.133