Last update:
29-Sep-2023

Pain is an unpleasant experience that significantly affects various dimensions of the patient's daily life. It is also a complex medical phenomenon and a major public health issue. Chronic pain often coexists with certain mental disorders, highlighting their biopsychological interaction. Various socio-cultural factors are also directly linked to the way pain is perceived, expressed and treated. In addition, a psychological factor of paramount importance is considered to be the existence of catastrophic thoughts that are related to the pain as it can potentially result in the disability of the individual. However, in the attempt to eliminate pain, the use of opioids has produced the opposite of the desired results and magnified its effects, creating a new public health crisis. Undoubtedly, strategic health policy planning needs to move away from the biomedical approach and treat pain as a biopsychosocial phenomenon.

Key words: Biopsychosocial phenomenon, Catastrophic thinking, Mental disorders, Pain, Psychotherapeutic interventions.