The biopsychosocial factors that serve as predictors of the outcome of surgical modalities for chronic pain

Abstract

Chronic pain is considered a universal problem in terms of serious impairment in the biopsychosocial functioning of individuals. The psychiatric and psychosocial factors accompanying chronic pain necessitated alterations in classical therapeutic approaches towards chronic pain and resulted in a substantial increase in the number of multidisciplinary pain clinics worldwide. In these pain clinics, the primary goal is not only to predetermine the multiple etiologies playing a role in the acquisition and maintenance of chronic pain, but also to specify whether the individual in pain is psychologically suitable for a surgical intervention for either diagnostic or treatment purposes. This specific question stems from the fact that even though the underlying organic pathologies are similar, the effectiveness of invasive interventions for determining the cause of or attenuating pain may vary between individuals. The most important predictors of adverse outcomes of invasive interventions for chronic pain stated in the literature are primarily depression, anxiety and somatization followed by features of pain such as severity or number of painful body sites. In line with the vast body of research, especially over the previous decade, this small scale review aims to emphasize the interactional roles of biopsychosocial factors on the effectiveness of surgical interventions and to discuss the issues regarding the assessment of these predictors.