Barth Lena, Baumbach Linda, Hajek André, Götzmann Lutz, Feiks Katrin, Rufer Michael, Schwegler Kyrill, Schwennen Bianca, Bernhardt Kirstin, Wutzler Uwe, Kaiser Paul, Wittmann Lutz, Siegel Adrian
Department of Psychology, MSH Medical School Hamburg Hamburg Germany.
Department of Health Economics and Health Services Research University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf Hamburg Germany.
J Gen Fam Med. 2024 Oct 14;26(1):65-72. doi: 10.1002/jgf2.735. eCollection 2025 Jan.
Patients with somatoform pain experience physical pain that cannot be attributed to any underlying medical or physiological cause, and it is often thought to be related to psychological factors. Health professionals encounter difficulties identifying this specific type of chronic pain, leading to suboptimal treatment strategies. Therefore, we aimed to describe the characteristics of patients with somatoform pain, to support the identification of affected patients.
We collected and analyzed a cross-sectional survey data from 200 patients with somatoform pain admitted to one of three psychosomatic centers in Germany between August 2013 and July 2014. The survey contains 10 different categories, all of them referring to pain-related topics. Within the survey, we analyzed validated as well as non-validated questionnaires. Here, we present the following five: Personal data, Body: Pain perception, Cognition: Pain processing, Pain behavior, and Physical complaints.
Our results highlight that most patients with somatoform pain experience it in several body parts and as persisting, lasting >12 h/day (50%), and constantly changing (71%). Furthermore, patients indicate feelings of helplessness, by agreeing to the expressions the pain controls me (70%). Finally, we found that pain is predominantly seen as suffering, failing to convey emotional pain, despite cognitively acknowledging the dependency of emotional and physical pain.
The study identified specific and distinctive characteristics in the emotional and behavioral responses of patients with somatoform pain, potentially distinguishing them from other patients with chronic pain.
躯体形式疼痛患者经历的身体疼痛无法归因于任何潜在的医学或生理原因，通常认为与心理因素有关。医疗专业人员在识别这种特定类型的慢性疼痛时遇到困难，导致治疗策略欠佳。因此，我们旨在描述躯体形式疼痛患者的特征，以帮助识别受影响的患者。
我们收集并分析了2013年8月至2014年7月期间在德国三个身心医学中心之一住院的200例躯体形式疼痛患者的横断面调查数据。该调查包含10个不同类别，均涉及与疼痛相关的主题。在调查中，我们分析了经过验证和未经验证的问卷。在此，我们展示以下五项：个人数据、身体：疼痛感知、认知：疼痛处理、疼痛行为和身体不适。
我们的结果表明，大多数躯体形式疼痛患者在身体的几个部位都有疼痛，且疼痛持续存在，每天持续超过12小时（50%），且不断变化（71%）。此外，患者通过认同“疼痛控制了我”这种表述来表明无助感（70%）。最后，我们发现尽管在认知上承认情感疼痛和身体疼痛的相关性，但疼痛主要被视为痛苦，无法传达情感疼痛。
该研究确定了躯体形式疼痛患者在情感和行为反应方面的特定且独特的特征，这可能使他们与其他慢性疼痛患者有所区别。
