[Psychiatric aspects of low back pain (author's transl)]

Abstract

Chronic low back pain is more significant from the psychiatric point of view than the acute pain. As a persistent pain of organic origin it leads to typical psychopathological symptoms ("algogenic psychosyndrome"). The algogenic psychosyndrome must be differentiated diagnostically from neurotic developments and masked depressions. Psychosomatic low back pain is a warning of failure in the accomplishment of professional or family duties and chronic and chronic inhibited aggression. - An interdisciplinary study of the courses of 50 patients operated on for prolapse of the lumbar intervertebral disk showed that the psychopathological picture and the pain syndrome are usually determined by several factors. The majority of neurotic disordered personalities developed symptoms of new syndromes after the operation.