Assessment of patients' reporting of pain: an integrated perspective

A common assumption about pain is that it always results from the presence of underlying organic pathology. In the absence of objective pathology, an individual's report of pain may be ascribed to psychological causes. There is a wide variation in patient's experience of pain and organic factors alo ne cannot explain individual differences in patients' reports. Assessment o f patients who report pain requires attention to psychosocial, behavioural, and organic factors. We describe a comprehensive approach to the assessmen t of psychological and behavioural variables that affect patients' reports of pain. We counter the duality of the somatogenic versus psychogenic persp ective and suggest a more integrated assessment that encompasses not only t he severity of pain and related physical pathology but also the person who is reporting the presence of pain.