The IASP classification of chronic pain for ICD-11: chronic primary pain

Abstract

Abstract This article describes a proposal for the new diagnosis of chronic primary pain (CPP) in ICD-11 . Chronic primary pain is chosen when pain has persisted for more than 3 months and is associated with significant emotional distress and/or functional disability, and the pain is not better accounted for by another condition. As with all pain, the article assumes a biopsychosocial framework for understanding CPP, which means all subtypes of the diagnosis are considered to be multifactorial in nature, with biological, psychological, and social factors contributing to each. Unlike the perspectives found in DSM-5 and ICD-10 , the diagnosis of CPP is considered to be appropriate independently of identified biological or psychological contributors, unless another diagnosis would better account for the presenting symptoms. Such other diagnoses are called “chronic secondary pain” where pain may at least initially be conceived as a symptom secondary to an underlying disease. The goal here is to create a classification that is useful in both primary care and specialized pain management settings for the development of individualized management plans, and to assist both clinicians and researchers by providing a more accurate description of each diagnostic category.

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Affiliated Institutions

• KU Leuven BE
• Université Paris Cité FR
• University Hospital Heidelberg DE
• Maastricht University NL
• Aarhus University DK
• University of Liverpool GB
• University of Chieti-Pescara IT
• Karolinska Institutet SE
• Taipei Veterans General Hospital TW
• Hôpital Cochin FR
• Krankenhaus Lindenbrunn DE
• Inserm FR
• Délégation Paris 5 FR
• National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University TW
• Aintree University Hospital GB
• Queen Mary University of London GB
• University of Münster DE
• University Medical Centre Mannheim DE
• Royal North Shore Hospital AU
• The University of Sydney AU
• St Vincent's Clinic AU
• Philipps University of Marburg DE
• Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey US
• Ziekenhuis Oost-Limburg BE
• Heidelberg University DE

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