People with pain disorder report pain that causes significant distress or impairment, which cannot be fully explained medically. The disorder often coexists with other disorders such as depression, anxiety and substance dependencies.
Symptoms and characteristics
To be considered a pain disorder, symptoms need to persist for at least six months, however symptoms typically continue for years and become known as a chronic or long term disorder.
The major symptom is reported pain in one or more body areas, causing significant distress and associated physical impairment in functioning.
Pain disorder tends to affect more women than men.
For more information on some of these symptoms and characteristics, follow these links:
Workplace adjustments and solutions
In the workplace pain disorder can affect a person’s ability to focus and process information, even their motor skills can be affected. There are some strategies that can be used in the workplace to reduce the effect that pain disorder has on a person’s performance, such as:
- allow for open and honest communication between employer and employee so both parties can express any concerns
- if appropriate provide education to the person who has the pain disorder and other employees so that everyone has an understanding of how people can be affected. This is especially important as people who have never come into contact with the disorder can find it hard to understand how people with a pain disorder can behave
- contact a doctor or hospital if there is a threat of harm or substance dependencies.
There are solutions and adjustments for the following job requirements:
References
AllPsych 2004, Pain Disorder, AllPsych and Heffner Media Group Inc., Florida, viewed 18 August 2011, http://allpsych.com/disorders/somatoform/paindisorder.html.
PsychNet—UK (no date specified), Pain Disorder, PsychNet—UK, online, viewed 18 August 2011,
http://www.psychnetuk.com/x_new_site/clinical_psychology/somatoform_disorders/pain_disorder.html.