Last updated: Thu, Jun 29, 2017
Does past physical or sexual abuse make one more likely to develop a chronic pain problem? It would certainly make sense that a trauma such as a broken back might heal poorly and lead to chronic pain, but the idea behind this theory is very often that some psychological connection links past physical or emotional trauma to current suffering.
Chronic pain sufferers have been found to be more likely to report a history of physical or sexual abuse.1 On the other hand, people in pain have a tendency to recollect negatively. A 1983 experiment on cute, cuddly kittens exposed them “to pain stimuli.” It was found, as we now might expect from brain imaging studies, that this resulted in expanded cortical representation of the unspecified “affected body part.”2
It does seem quite plausible, on the evidence, that past trauma would predispose to pain. The current evidence is that past trauma to a specific area of the body would predispose to pain in that area, or to areas affected by it. It isn't known how the severity of a past trauma or when it occurred affect the vulnerability of a person in the present. I haven't come across evidence that such a vulnerability could lead to chronic pain without additional trauma to or disease of the vulnerable body part.