The Biopsychosocial Approach to Chronic Pain: Scientific Advances and Future Directions

The prevalence and cost of chronic pain is a major physical and mental health care problem in the United States today. As a result, there has been a recent explosion of research on chronic pain, with significant advances in better understanding its etiology, assessment, and treatment. The purpose of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychological bulletin 2007-07, Vol.133 (4), p.581-624
Main Authors: Gatchel, Robert J, Peng, Yuan Bo, Peters, Madelon L, Fuchs, Perry N, Turk, Dennis C
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adaptation, Psychological
Animals
Biological and medical sciences
Biological Influences
Biomedical Research - methods
Biomedical Research - trends
Biopsychosocial Approach
Brain
Brain Mapping - methods
Brain research
Chronic Disease
Chronic Illness
Chronic illnesses
Chronic Pain
Clinical Diagnosis
Cognition
Diagnostic Tests
Emotions
Etiology
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Health care
Health psychology
Heuristics
Human
Humans
Illness
Medical Services
Medical treatment
Mental health
Models, Animal
Models, Psychological
Neurology
Neuroscience
Neurosciences
Neurosciences - methods
Neurosciences - trends
Pain
Pain - etiology
Pain - genetics
Pain - psychology
Perception
Proprioception. Interoception. Pain perception
Psychology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Social Behavior
Social Influences
Treatment
U.S.A
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Summary:The prevalence and cost of chronic pain is a major physical and mental health care problem in the United States today. As a result, there has been a recent explosion of research on chronic pain, with significant advances in better understanding its etiology, assessment, and treatment. The purpose of the present article is to provide a review of the most noteworthy developments in the field. The biopsychosocial model is now widely accepted as the most heuristic approach to chronic pain. With this model in mind, a review of the basic neuroscience processes of pain (the bio part of biopsychosocial), as well as the psychosocial factors, is presented. This spans research on how psychological and social factors can interact with brain processes to influence health and illness as well as on the development of new technologies, such as brain imaging, that provide new insights into brain-pain mechanisms.
ISSN:0033-2909
1939-1455
DOI:10.1037/0033-2909.133.4.581