Hostname: page-component-669899f699-7tmb6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-05-06T06:50:12.564Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Pain and Depression

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

I. Pilowsky  and
D. L. Bassett
I. Pilowsky
Affiliation:
The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, 5000
D. L. Bassett
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Royal Adelaide Hospital, Adelaide, South Australia, 5000
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

This paper explores the relationship between depression and chronic intractable pain in which somatic pathology is playing a minor role. In this study, 114 patients with chronic pain were compared with 53 patients with depression. Patients with chronic pain were older, more likely to be married, more frequently attributed difficulties in activity and sleep to pain, and reported greater impairment of motor functions. They had less dysphoria and an illness behaviour profile (on the Illness Behaviour Questionnaire) suggestive of a conversion reaction. Depressed patients recalled more life events in the year prior to presentation, whilst pain patients recalled more events of nine and ten years earlier. It is concluded that the two patient groups cannot be considered identical. It is argued that the concept of abnormal illness behaviour helps to distinguish the two groups.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 141 , Issue 1 , July 1982 , pp. 30 - 36
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Baekland, F. & Lasky, R. (1966) Exercise and sleep patterns in college athletes. Perceptual Motor Skills, 23, 1203–7.Google Scholar
Gilson, B., Gilson, J., Bergner, M., Bobbitt, R., Kressel, S., Pollar, W. & Vesselaso, M. (1975) The sickness impact profile. Development of an outcome measure of health care. American Journal of Public Health, 65, 1304–10.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Maruta, T., Swanson, D. W. & Swenson, W. M. (1976) Pain as a psychiatric symptom: comparison between low back pain and depression. Psychosomatics, 17, 123–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Melzack, R. & Chapman, C. R. (1973) Psychologic aspects of pain. Postgraduate Medicine, 53, 69–75.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Merskey, H. & Spear, F. S. (1967) Psychological and Psychiatric Aspects. London: Tindall and Cassell.Google Scholar
Moldofsky, H. (1976) Psychogenic rheumatism or the fibrostic syndrome. In Modern Trends in Psychosomatic Medicine Vol. 3 (ed. Hill, O.). London: Butterworth.Google Scholar
Pilowsky, I., Chapman, C. R. & Bonica, J. J. (1977) Pain, depression and illness behaviour in a pain clinic population. Pain, 4, 183–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pilowsky, I., Levine, S. & Boulton, D. M. (1969) The classification of depression by numerical taxonomy. British Journal of Psychiatry, 115, 937–45.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pilowsky, I. & Spalding, D. (1972) A method for measuring depression: validity studies on a depression questionnaire. British Journal of Psychiatry, 121, 411–16.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pilowsky, I. & Spence, N. D. (1975) Patterns of illness behaviour in patients with intractable pain. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 19, 279–87.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pilowsky, I. & Spence, N. D. (1976) Pain and illness behaviour: A comparative study. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 20, 131–4.Google ScholarPubMed
Pilowsky, I. & Spence, N. D. (1981) Manual for the Illness Behaviour Questionnaire (IBQ). Adelaide: University of Adelaide.Google Scholar
Pinsky, J. J. (1979) Aspects of the psychology of pain. In Chronic Pain (ed. Crue, B. L.). New York: S.P. Medical and Scientific Books.Google Scholar
Rawnsley, K. & Loudon, J. B. (1964) Epidemiology of mental disorders in a closed community. British Journal of Psychiatry, 110, 830–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spielberger, C. (1975) The measurement of state and trait anxiety: conceptual and methodological issues. In Emotions: Their Parameters and Measurement (ed. Lesie, L.). New York: Raven Press.Google Scholar
Spielberger, C. Gorsuch, R. & Lushene, R. (1970) STA1 Manual for the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. Pal Alto: Consulting Psychologists Press.Google Scholar
Sternbach, R. A. (1974) Pain Patients: Traits and Treatment. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Tennant, C. & Andrews, G. (1976) A scale to measure the stress of life events. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 10, 27–32.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zung, W. W. K. (1965) A self-rating depression scale. Archives of General Psychiatry, 12, 63–70.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.