@article{ref1,
title="Emotional instability due to personality impairment is reflected in the intensity of central pain",
journal="Pain Clinic",
year="2002",
author="Yanagida, H. and Arakawa, K. and Sakai, K. and Sadohara, Y.",
volume="14",
number="3",
pages="263-268",
abstract="A 32-year-old woman, who was by nature emotionally unstable, suffered from pain due to spinal cord injury after attempting suicide by jumping from a building. She experienced mild pain almost constantly and suffered paroxysmal severe pain intermittently. The patient recorded her own pain intensity on a visual analog scale 700 times, i.e. 7 times/day for 100 days. The frequency of recorded pain was as follows: no pain 36 times (5.1%), mild pain 608 times (86.9%), moderate pain 18 times (2.6%), and severe pain 38 times (5.4%). The paroxysmal exacerbations of pain were reported 56 times during the 700 pain recordings. The exacerbating factors included: an emotionally unstable situation 44 times (78.5%), fatigue 4 times (7.2%), somatic stimuli twice (3.6%), and unknown reasons 6 times (10.7%). These data clearly show that the emotional instability of this patient has a direct effect on her pain score over time. In order to define the exacerbating factor(s) of pain, we believe that systematic recording of pain intensity over several months is essential.<p /><p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0169-1112",
doi="10.1163/156856902320761496",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/156856902320761496"
}