Nonspecificity of Chronic Soft Tissue Pain Syndromes

Persistent (or chronic) pain occurs with a prevalence of about 10% in the adult population, and chronic soft tissue pain is especially problematic. Criteria for diagnosis of these soft tissue pain disorders appear to suffer from specificity problems, even though they appear to be sensitive in distinguishing normal from soft tissue pain sufferers. A few decades ago the term ′neuraesthenia′ was used as a diagnosis in individuals who now would …