Pain Disorder

Pain disorder is a mental illness closely related to hypochondrism. The patient complains of phantom pain in different parts of his or her body – stomach pain, leg cramps, or whatever – that has no physical root cause. A doctor examining the patient will find no organic disease, but may find evidence of a psychological problem. Pain the patient complains of may not conform to the anatomical distribution of the nervous system. Pain disorder may occur in conjunction with hypochondrism, or in conjunction with other neuroses, or it may simply be by itself.

Pain disorder may come after surgery, hospitalization, or injury; when the wound heals, the pain doesn’t go away. It sometimes comes in conjunction with an addiction as well, and may be a symptom of hypochondrism or another depressive disorder. Sometimes a pain disorder will also come in conjunction with hysteria, presenting when the patient is having a hysteric fit. It may also occur in conjunction with post traumatic stress disorder, particularly when the stress that initially caused the disorder also caused an injury, such as in war or a terrible accident.

Pain disorder is not to be confused with the phantom pain experienced by some paralytics and amputees. Phantom pain is often real stimulation of nerves that used to be attached to the paralyzed or amputated part and thus has an organic source, whereas pain disorder occurs without any organic reason. And phantom pain can often be treated with certain drugs, whereas pain disorder is almost impossible to treat with any kind of painkiller (its only response is really a placebo effect, in which the patient feels better because they think they should feel better.)

Somatoform disorders like pain disorder are treated by determining the underlying cause of the pain and treating that. Pain pills and other medications are unlikely to have anything more than a placebo effect on the patient’s pain. If, however, you can successfully treat the depression, hyypochondrism, or other disorder that underlies the pain disorder, the patient will recover.

Because of the many different reasons pain disorder manifests, it may or may not be successfully treatable. If it comes in conjunction with another mental illness, it should be treatable and the patient should recover fully. If, however, pain disorder is due to some other stimulus, it may be impossible to ever properly treat the disease. Some success has been shown with shock therapy and other treatments that directly stimulate the brain’s pain mechanisms. Unfortunately, though, there is a small number of pain disorder patients who will never be completely cured.

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