Personality disorders in the chronic pain population: Basic concepts, empirical findings, and clinical implications

Personality traits and characteristics have repeatedly been studied in the chronic pain literature. Accurate personality disorder diagnosis is now being conducted in the psychiatric literature through the use of semistructured interview techniques. There have been four studies to date that have used similar technology to diagnose personality disorders in chronicpain patients. Accurate personality disorder diagnosis can be beneficial if used appropriately to guide treatment decisions and to help treating clinicians work within a common paradigm. Unfortunately, there has yet to be a rigorous investigation of personality disorder diagnosis using semistructured instruments widely used in psychiatric research. The authors suggest that a diathesis-stress model may best help to explain the relatively high prevalence of personality disorder seen in the chronic pain population.