Separating the physical and psychosocial causes of pain

Graphical abstract. Credit: Med (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.medj.2024.07.016 Not all pain is the same. Depending on the cause, it requires different therapies. A team led by ETH Zurich has now developed a method that enables physicians to better distinguish between physical and psychosocial pain. Severe pain often has physical causes. But emotional, psychological and social factors can influence how we perceive and react to pain. “Pain is usually made up of a physical and a psychosocial component,” explains Noemi Gozzi, a doctoral student at ETH Zurich. Physicians do their best to take this into account in their treatment recommendations. So far, Read More