Illness behavior and depression compared in pain center and private practice patients.

Recent descriptions of illness behavior and personality factors in chronic pain patients reflect patient populations at clinics dealing with refractory, multiple referral pain problems. Pain patients from the University of Washington Pain Center were compared with patients from a private practice clinic with regard to illness behavior and depression. Private practice patients were significantly less depressed, showed less conviction of disease, general hypochondriasis, affect disturbance and were less somatically focussed than the Pain Center patients. Physicians in general practice treating pain patients should avoid forming stereotypes of chronic pain patients based on the experiences of referral clinics, for such characterizations may lead them to weigh psychologic factors too heavily in diagnosis.