[The psychiatrist and pain]

The psychiatrist might be called upon for states of pain on two occasions. The first is when the pain is mainly functioned, with or without a previous history of organic pain. It is most frequently met, with various diagnostic difficulties, in hypochondriac neurosis, complaining delirium, schizophrenia, multiple somatizations, isolated psychogenic pain and masked depression. The second is when the pain is organic, always progressive, with associated psychiatric disturbances which interact with it. We shall consider these various problems from both a clinical and a therapeutic point of view aiming at their practical rather than their theoretical aspects.