Psychosomatics 1991; 32:294-303
Copyright © 1991 by Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine
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ORIGINAL RESEARCH REPORTS |
Chronic pain patients and the nonorganic physical sign of nondermatomal sensory abnormalities (NDSA)
DA Fishbain, M Goldberg, RS Rosomoff and H Rosomoff
Department of Psychiatry, University of Miami School of Medicine, FL.
The nonorganic physical sign of nondermatomal sensory abnormalities (NDSA)
is frequently found in chronic pain patients. The presence of NDSA
qualifies the patient for a potential DSM-III diagnosis of conversion
disorder. DSM-III (Axis I and II) diagnoses and personality styles were
assigned to 283 mixed chronic pain patients. Discriminant analysis was used
to identify diagnoses and personality styles significantly related to NDSA.
The demographic variables of workers' compensation (WC) status, age, sex,
and race were used as control variables. The discriminant function
comprised all control variable, and psychiatric diagnoses accounted for
only 22.1% of the variance. Age and WC status, i.e., the demographic
variables, explained most of the variance (16.8%), with psychiatric
diagnoses adding little (5.3%). The vast majority of the variance is
unexplained, indicating the presence of "unexplained" factors for the
presence of NDSA in chronic pain patients.
