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Last updated: Mon, Jul 3, 2017
The prevalence of childhood sexual abuse as self-reported is close to 30% among chronic pain patients. Research into whether childhood abuse (sexual or otherwise) may cause adult pain problems is fraught with problems, since the data is always incomplete and must usually rely on old memories. In one study, those who self-reported childhood abuse were not more likely than others to develop low back pain over a four year period. In another, adults with court records indicating childhood abuse were more likely to have experienced pain as young adults. In a third study, regional pain was not more likely to develop into widespread pain in those with childhood abuse. A meta-analysis (that is, an analysis of the results of multiple studies) found that those with a history of childhood sexual abuse were more likely to develop functional gastrointestinal orders, non-specific chronic pain, psychogenic seizures, or chronic pelvic pain, but were not more likely to develop fibromyalgia, obesity, or chronic headache. An fMRI study found differences in brain activation between abuse victims and otherwise similar non-victims.1 These results indicate that any link between childhood abuse and adult pain is sufficiently weak that it is difficult to clearly demonstrate.