Pain Disorder
Pain Disorder is diagnosed when a patient's predominant complaint is of physical pain in which psychological factors (such as stress) are judged to have played a significant role in the onset, severity, exacerbation, or maintenance of the pain. This is not the diagnosis that is given when the patient is judged as having intentionally produced symptoms or is outright faking (these require other diagnoses). In pain disorder, the suffering is so severe that it impairs a person's ability to function. Individuals with this illness may have medical problems, but these fail to account fully for the pain.
There are three subtypes of pain disorder (depending upon whether a physical or psychological factor is determined to be predominate):
-
Pain Disorder associated with psychological factors.
-
Pain Disorder associated with both psychological factors and a general medical condition.
-
Pain Disorder associated with a general medical condition (i.e., psychological factors, if present, are judged to play no more than a minimal role).
