The role of stressful traumatic events, personality traits and psychiatric disorders in the formation of chronic pain syndromes

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Chronic pain syndrome is a highly prevalent condition that negatively affects the ability to work and quality of life, as well as worsening the prognosis of the disease and increasing the risk of early death. One of the most important scientific and practical medical tasks is the identification of risk factors for the transition of acute pain to chronic pain, which in the future will allow to develop mechanisms for preventing the development of chronic pain. It has been established that various psychological and psychopathological factors, in particular, personality traits and mental disorders, psychotraumatic events, make a significant contribution to the perpetuation of pain, but these data require clarification.

AIM: To determine the contribution of stressful events, personality profile and comorbid psychiatric disorders to the formation of chronic pain syndromes.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study included 105 patients aged 18 to 70 years with unexplained somatic or neurological pain syndrome that existed for more than 6 months and served as a reason for hospitalization. All patients underwent clinical-anamnestic and psychometric examination, statistical processing of the results was performed using SPSS Statistics v22.

RESULTS: In the course of the study, 4 groups of patients with psychiatric disorders comorbid with chronic pain were formed: 1 — chronic pain within the framework of prolonged reaction to stress\exhaustion disorder, 42 observations (12 men, 30 women); 2 — chronic pain within the framework of prolonged masked depressive episodes, 41 observations (6 men, 35 women); 3 — chronic pain as part of hypochondriacal spectrum disorders (limited hypochondria), 15 observations (8 men, 7 women); 4 — chronic pain as part of constitutional anomalies with a tendency to experience pain (pain prone personality), 7 observations (5 men, 2 women).

CONCLUSION: A significant association of chronic pain syndromes with stressful events has been established.

Keywords

chronic pain / psychic trauma / anxiety disorder / depression / hypochondria

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