Chronic pain: lifetime psychiatric diagnoses and family history

Thirty-seven patients with chronic pain admitted to a 3-week inpatient pain program were interviewed using the NIMH Diagnostic Interview Schedule and the family history method. The most frequent psychiatric diagnoses were major depressive disorder (current episode = 32.4%, past episode = 43.2%) and alcohol abuse (40.5%). More than half of the patients had a history of one or more episodes of major depression and/or alcohol abuse before the onset of their chronic pain. Family history revealed that 59.5% of the patients had at least one first-degree family member with chronic pain, 29.7% had a family member with affective illness, and 37.8% had a family member with alcohol abuse.