Fear of pain or algophobia

Fear of pain or algophobia, which is distinguished by an extreme and irrational fear of pain and which involves high anxiety and anticipation, occurs especially among the elderly population and has more than one intervention strategy to be addressed.

The fear of pain is a fear that is as common as it is normal; after all, Who is not afraid of physical suffering? Suffering from pain is one of the least desirable states in which a person can find themselves. In fact, our natural tendency is usually to do everything possible to avoid it.

The escape from pain constitutes a reflex mechanism in favor of our personal integrity and survival. and, therefore, obeys an adaptive purpose. However, there are people for whom this fear – which diagnostic manuals technically call algophobia – reaches clearly higher levels to what would be considered normal.

And not only would the intensity of fear stand out in them, but also its frequency, persistence and influence on daily life. Therefore, for people who suffer from algophobia, this anxious aversion to pain constitutes a true problem with pronounced socio-affective implications.

Characteristics of fear of pain

From a psychopathological point of view, Fear of pain can be defined as a type of anxiety disorder, by virtue of which a person may experience an irrational and extreme fear of a specific person, object or situation.

This conception has an enormously wide applicability, since there are many pathologized fears that can occur in some people.

In the case at hand, the feared situation would correspond to the trance of suffering from pain and the feared object to the pain itself with all the negative characteristics, both psychological and strictly physical-perceptual, that it usually brings with it.

A curious fact regarding algophobia is that, in population terms, it presents higher incidence and prevalence rate among the elderly cohort. This fact is not without a certain meaning, since older people – compared to younger populations – are more exposed:

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To complaints from people of your age and those around you regarding diseases and illnesses.To the perception of the suffering of said conditions by others.To the first-person experience of the pathologies associated with age.

Therefore, it is generally typical for a person with a fear of pain to anticipate the appearance of conditions that may give rise to the experience of pain. Furthermore, this anticipation is usually accompanied by some cognitive and physiological anxiety and ultimately leads the person to suffer the results of pain in an anticipated way and fictitious.

The degree of impact of this fear on the individual’s daily life seems large enough to imply some type of impairment in the general well-being of the person who suffers from it.

Algophobia and hyperalgesia

The phenomenon of hyperalgesia, understood as an exacerbated sensitivity to pain that generally originates from physical damage to the nerves or nerve endings and pain receptors, has been related in more than one study to the psychological phenomenon of algophobia. . Both altered states, however, are not necessarily accompanied by each other.

“True pain, which makes us suffer deeply, sometimes makes even the thoughtless man serious and constant; Even the poor in spirit become more intelligent after great pain.”

-Fyodor Dostoevsky-

A person who suffers from hyperalgesia may develop fear of pain when being aware – thanks to previous experiences – of the potential pain that various stimuli can cause. Conversely, an individual who presents high levels of algophobia may be more psychologically predisposed to experience physical pain and, therefore, at the moment of actually perceiving it, that pain may be subjectively disproportionate.

Evaluation and treatment of fear of pain

In a clinical setting, there is more than one diagnostic tool to determine the presence or absence of this phobia and to quantify its intensity. While the assessment of hyperalgesia would essentially correspond to the medical field, that of algophobia concerns more the psychological field, as it often corresponds to acquired habits and learned behaviors.

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One of the most assimilated and widely used psychometric tests is the Fear of Pain Questionnaire (FPQ-III), which depending on the value obtained for a subject can lead to the appropriate differential diagnosis.

The psychotherapeutic approach to fear of pain is not excessively different from that applied to other types of phobia and, in general, is more effective when it includes combination of two fronts of action:

Psychoaffective intervention -psychological therapy, among which cognitive-behavioral therapy and various relaxation techniques stand out.Pharmacotherapy intervention -mainly through the use of anxiolytic medication, which may be accompanied by antidepressant drugs for the treatment of reactive mood disorders-.

Pain is an element to avoid and from which most people tend to run away. If it is an avoidable pain, logic seems to dictate that there is no real reason to suffer it and then it would become legal to use strategies for the avoidance and/or palliation of this pain.

And the same could be applicable for that other pain – secondary – that the anticipation of one’s own pain – primary – generates in people who suffer from algophobia. In these cases, too, it could be legal lean on medical and health professionals mentally to prevent this fear of pain from detracting from a well-deserved well-being.