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The Psychological Assessment of Patients with Chronic Pain

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Treatment of Chronic Pain by Integrative Approaches

Abstract

There is strong evidence that the biopsychosocial model does not apply only to dysfunctional patients with chronic pain, but rather represents the inherent nature of pain. Research has determined that psychological tests are scientifically as valid and reliable as medical tests with regard to diagnostics and predicting a patient’s response to treatments for pain. As many payers and guidelines now require psychological evaluations prior to authorizing certain treatments for pain, pain clinics increasingly use some form of psychological assessment. While there are a large number of psychometric questionnaires used to assess patients with chronic pain, only a few have undergone the rigorous process required to become standardized tests, and these are reviewed. Both evidence and opinion are converging on a set of psychosocial variables that should be assessed when treating patients with chronic pain, and these can all be organized within a biopsychosocial “vortex” paradigm. A standardized method of psychological assessment can identify patients who are at low, moderate, and high risk, and this is illustrated with three case vignettes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Health Psychology Associates, 1610 29th Avenue Place, Suite 200, Greeley, CO, 80634, USA

    Daniel Bruns PsyD

  2. Independent Practice, 225 Union Blvd. Suite 150, Lakewood, CO, 80228, USA

    John Mark Disorbio EdD

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  1. Daniel Bruns PsyD
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Correspondence to Daniel Bruns PsyD .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. President and CEO, Clinical Professor of Anesthesiology, The Center for Pain Relief, West Virginia University School of Medicine, Charleston, West Virginia, USA

    Timothy R. Deer

  2. Clinic Chief, Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Anesthesiology, Stanford Pain Medicine Center, Redwood City, CA, USA, and Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, USA

    Michael S. Leong

  3. Medical Director, Clinical Associate Professor, The LITE Center, South Miami, FL, USA, and University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, Florida, USA

    Albert L. Ray

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Bruns, D., Disorbio, J.M. (2015). The Psychological Assessment of Patients with Chronic Pain. In: Deer, T., Leong, M., Ray, A. (eds) Treatment of Chronic Pain by Integrative Approaches. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-1821-8_6

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