The clinical concept of chronic pain

In this article, the authors present a rationale for considering pain to be a major health problem in the United States, based on epidemiologic data. They then define the nature of pain disorders in terms of their acute and chronic forms. By extending the definition of pain into a psychogenic/organic dichotomy, the authors introduce the concept of personality variables and psychodynamic considerations that have been attributed to patients with chronic pain. Finally, the overlap and evidence for depression as a coexisting variable with chronic pain is considered. Throughout the article, the authors are arguing implicitly for a multimodal approach to therapy.