Biopsychosocial Model of Pain
In the past, medical and other training focused largely on the biological (the structure of the body and its systems and their abnormality) aspects of diseases and conditions including pain. Over the years, though, there has been increasing understanding of the close and complex inter-relationship of this with the psychological processes going on in the individual and that individual's interaction with their social environment. All three areas are of considerable importance in the overall experience of pain, and this has been formulated into a model called the Biopsychosocial Model of Pain. Modern assessment and management of patients' pain uses this model as its basis.
Links
In a slide presentation from the Pain Community Centre Owen Hughes, a clinical psychologist working in Pain, discusses the biopsychosocial model of Pain. Although compiled for professionals, it is still in comprehensible terminology and we hope that you will find it useful.
Pain Service Website, Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Webmaster Dr J G de Courcy, Consultant in Pain Medicine and Anaesthesia
email: pain.webmaster[at]glos.nhs.uk