Words of chronic pain

Abstract

An analysis of the language of pain complaints, employing categories of descriptors, was used to determine if chronic pain of either psychiatric or organic origin might be depicted in terms specific for the disease. The complaints of 128 patients with chronic pain were studied for characteristic patterns. Patients with pain of organic etiology used sensory-thermal (e.g., hot, burning) words more frequently than those with pain of psychiatric origin. Female patients with pain attributed to anxiety used sensory-temporal words (e.g., throbbing) more frequently than those with other psychiatric diagnoses. There was also a statistically significant preponderance of pain on the left when the groups of patients with physical and psychological illness were combined.