Overview

Our current understanding of pain is that it is not just a sensory experience but also has a psychological component. What we think, what we feel and how we behave can all influence the experience of pain. Indeed, such cognitive, emotional and behavioural processes are believed to moderate pain sensation by inhibiting or facilitating noxious signals. The fact that pain experiences can have little to do with nociception or tissue damage and much more to do with how patients respond to pain has important implications for pain management. The primary objectives of this chapter are therefore to:

• Provide readers with an overview of the contribution that psychology has made to our understanding of the experience of pain.

• Outline some of the main methods used to evaluate such psychological processes.

Role of psychology in the experience of pain

Emotions and moods

One of the main psychological responses to pain is an emotional one. When in pain, patients often report feeling anxious, depressed, angry and/or frustrated. Although the terms emotion and mood are often (and confusingly) used interchangeably they should be considered conceptually distinct. Emotions are discrete states, relatively short in duration (seconds, minutes), have a rapid onset and are usually caused by specific events.