Psychiatric factors influencing the treatment of pain with peripheral conditioning stimulation.

Sixty-six patients treated with transcutaneous nerve stimulation (TNS) for pain symptoms were studied with respect to the incidence of different psychiatric factors and physical disorders in relation to success or failure of the treatment. In a blind screening procedure, mental illness and pathological personality traits were negative in relation to treatment success, while a state of reactive decompensation was not. Patients without any relevant physical cause of their pain were generally treatment failures and they had an excess of pathological personality traits, mostly of a hysterical nature.