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Psychosocial and Cultural Aspects of Pain

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Academic Pain Medicine

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Abstract

Biomedical characterizations of pain posit that the existence and severity of pain can be attributed to a specific organic pathology: identifying and correcting the latter should result in eradication of the pain symptoms. While the simplicity of such cause-and-effect models can be attractive, they fail to take into consideration the role of psychological factors in the onset, maintenance, and exacerbation of pain and may thus limit a patient’s response to treatment. The International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) defines pain as “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage.” Biopsychological characterizations such as this expand on biomedical models by recognizing that the experience of pain possesses both physiologic and psychological underpinnings. Concurrently addressing the physical, behavioral, and psychological components of pain has been shown to improve functioning and decrease pain-related distress and could potentially reduce the financial burden associated with pain treatment.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Pain Medicine, Stanford University, Redwood City, CA, USA

    Ravi Prasad

  2. Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, MD, USA

    Laura Wandner

Authors
  1. Ravi Prasad
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  2. Laura Wandner
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ravi Prasad .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Pain Medicine Fellowship, Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine, Department of Neurology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA

    Yury Khelemsky

  2. Pain Medicine Fellowship, Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA

    Anuj Malhotra

  3. Regional Anesthesia and Acute Pain Medicine Fellowship, Department of Anesthesiology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, NY, USA

    Karina Gritsenko

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Prasad, R., Wandner, L. (2019). Psychosocial and Cultural Aspects of Pain. In: Khelemsky, Y., Malhotra, A., Gritsenko, K. (eds) Academic Pain Medicine. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18005-8_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18005-8_10

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-18004-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-18005-8

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