Thirty-seven patients with chronic pain admitted to a 3-week inpatient
pain program were interviewed using the NIMH Diagnostic Interview Schedule
and the family history method. The most frequent psychiatric diagnoses were
major depressive disorder (current episode = 32.4%, past episode = 43.2%)
and alcohol abuse (40.5%). More than half of the patients had a history of
one or more episodes of major depression and/or alcohol abuse before the
onset of their chronic pain. Family history revealed that 59.5% of the
patients had at least one first- degree family member with chronic pain,
29.7% had a family member with affective illness, and 37.8% had a family
member with alcohol abuse.Abstract Teaser