Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-94d59 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T06:40:50.225Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Severe Localized Pain Associated with the Depressive Syndrome

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

J. J. Bradley*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological Medicine, St. Thomas's Hospital, S.E.1

Extract

Depressive illness is protean in its manifestations. The symptoms may be primarily psychological, such as misery, indecisiveness, irritability, inability to concentrate, or insomnia. They may be mainly physical, and the patient may present with one or more of a bewildering number of somatic complaints, often blaming those for his change in mood (Watts, 1957). Pain is a common and diagnostically puzzling presenting symptom of depression and other psychiatric disorders (Walters, 1961). It may take the form of generalized or poorly localized aches and pains, often associated with a feeling of tension, or it may be sharply delimited (Critchley, 1935). This form of localized pain may so dominate the symptomatology that the patient is referred by his general practitioner to a variety of specialists, who may perform a series of special investigations or even exploratory operations. Clearly, every effort must be made to exclude organic disease, even if positive signs of psychiatric illness are recognized, as an organic disease can obviously co-exist with a psychiatric one. In spite of thorough investigation, there will remain a proportion of patients in whom no lesion can be found to account for their symptoms.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1963 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Boyd, D. A. (1956). Lancet, 76, 22.Google Scholar
Critchley, M. (1935). Bristol Med. Clin. J., 52, 191.Google Scholar
Engel, G. L. (1961). J. Occup. Med., 3, 249.Google Scholar
Gittleson, N. L. (1962). J. Ment. Sci., 108, 452, 47.Google Scholar
Lesse, S. (1956). J. Nerv. Ment. Dis., 124, 346.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Neill, D. (1958). Postgrad. med. J., 34, 429.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Von Hagen, K. O. (1957). J. Amer. Med. Ass., 165, 1, 773.Google Scholar
Walters, A. (1961). Brain, 84, 1, 1.Google Scholar
Watts, C. A. H. (1957). Brit. Med. J., i, 4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.