How much do you know about pain disorders?

  Persistent somatoform pain disorder is a persistent, severe, distressing or disturbing chronic pain that cannot be rationally explained by a physiological process or somatic disorder. Patients are often repeatedly examined and seen for this reason, and a large percentage of them cannot be examined for the cause, or even if a somatic disorder is detected, the disorder does not cause the current severe symptoms, causing significant financial stress and psychological burden to the patient. Common symptoms include intractable headaches, chest pain, shoulder and back pain, etc. This falls under the category of psychological disorders.  Current research proves that emotional conflicts or psychosocial problems directly contribute to the onset of pain and are closely related to its persistence and progression. However, patients are not aware of this and refuse to admit that their pain problems are related to psychological problems, or even to discuss the problem with their doctors.  Most of the patients have been thoroughly examined but no pain-related lesions are detected. The course of pain is generally characterized by a chronic prolonged state, often lasting more than 6 months, and affecting work, school, life and social functioning.  Patients’ descriptions of pain are dramatic, often including “pulling pain in the back, pins-and-needles pain, jumping pain in the tendons”; “burning pain in the abdomen, uncomfortable gas flowing in the abdomen”, etc.  When diagnosing persistent somatic pain disorder, doctors usually need to exclude other psychological disorders, such as depression or schizophrenia, from the diagnosis of pain symptoms, and, of course, to exclude the association of physical illness with pain that is confirmed by tests.  Patients are often seen repeatedly in general hospitals for pain, often with poor outcomes; frequent treatment often leads to drug dependence or abuse problems, such as sedative-hypnotic or pain medication abuse.