Psychogenic pain

Psychogenic pain is physical pain that is caused, increased, or prolonged by mental, emotional, or behavioral factors, without evidence of physical injury or illness.^[2][3][4]

Headache, back pain, or stomach pain are some of the most common types of psychogenic pain.^[5] It is commonly accompanied by social rejection, broken heart, grief, lovesickness, regret, or other such emotional events. This pain can also be caused by psychological disorders such as anxiety and depression, which can affect the onset and severity of pain experienced.

The International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) defines pain as "an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with, or resembling that associated with, actual or potential tissue damage." This definition was revised for the first time since 1979 in 2020, and was officially published in the ICD-11. The IASP broadens this definition to include psychogenic pain with the following points:

• Pain is always a personal experience that is influenced to varying degrees by biological, psychological, and social factors.
• Through their life experience, individuals learn the concept of pain.
• A person's report of an experience of pain should be respected.^[6]

Furthermore, the ICD-11 removed the previous classification for psychogenic pain (persistent somatoform pain disorder) from the handbook in favor of understanding pain as a combination of physical and psychosocial factors. This is reflected in the definition for chronic primary pain, which acknowledges that pain stems from multiple personal and environmental factors and should be diagnosed "independently of identified biological or psychological contributors."^[7]

Some specialists believe that psychogenic chronic pain exists as a protective distraction to keep dangerous repressed emotions such as anger or rage unconscious. It remains controversial, however, that chronic pain might arise purely from emotional causes.^[8]