Hypersensitivity and hyperalgesia in somatoform pain disorders.

Abstract Objective In psychiatry, pain disorders not explained by structural lesions have been classified for decades as somatoform pain disorders , the underlying concept being somatization. In a parallel move, somatic medicine has defined an expanding group of similar pain disorders, known as functional pain syndromes . Functional pain syndromes are characterized by enhanced pain sensitivity. The aim of our study was to investigate the proportion of patients with somatoform pain disorders who also meet the criteria of functional pain syndromes and the extent to which patients with somatoform pain disorders also show enhanced pain sensitivity. Methods Data on pain sensitivity in 120 hospit…