Chronic pain disorders have been accepted as one of major comorbid disorder in chronic posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The main purpose of this research was to evaluate subjective processing of the pain in war veterans suffering from chronic PTSD and low back pain.

227 Croatian war veterans participated in this study. Based on their personal history, psychiatric and surgical assessment they were divided in three groups: subjects suffering from PTSD and chronic low back pain (N=88), subjects suffering from chronic low back pain (N=50) and healthy controls (N=89). The following questionnaires were used in assessment of PTSD, depressive disorders and pain: Trauma Symptom Inventory, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and the short-form McGill Pain Questionnaire.

We have shown the significant differences between three groups. The group of PTSD patients experience the higher level of the intensity of pain and have an altered perception of pain complaining more of the affective and sensory pain than the group suffering from the chronic low back pain only. Both groups suffering from pain show depressive pattern rather than the the control group. We have shown that the affective and sensory pain is in the strong positive correlations with the specific PTSD symptoms and depression.

Patients suffering from PTSD seem to have an altered processing of the pain, especially the affective component of pain, probably because of functional pain disorders in many those patients. However, the neurobiological mechanism is needed to thoroughly understand the processing of pain in chronic PTSD.