Psychosomatic pain

Psychiatric illness is more common in people with pain referred to psychiatric out-patient clinics (Merskey, 1965; Merskey et al, 1987), but in total the evidence for organic factors leading to distress in vulnerable individuals is overwhelming. EFFECTS OF PAIN ON PERSONALITY Although Engel (1959) and Blumer & Heilbronn (1982) correctly described factors predisposing to the genesis of chronic painful syndromes in a selected group of patients, the generalisations they made dissuaded colleagues working in this field that the biopsychosocial model espoused by these psychiatrists was necessarily relevant (Engel, 1977). In such conditions there is continued presentation of physical symptoms together with persistent requests for medical investigations despite negative findings of organic illness and reassurance by doctors that the symptoms have no physical basis. [...]the field of chronic pain is recognised in liaison psychiatry job plans, there is unlikely to be major input from psychiatrists in the UK into chronic painful conditions.