People who experience chronic pain may experience a range of psychological consequences, including:

• Changes in mood:
  
  
• Fear and anxiety. Some people experience fear and anxiety as a result of chronic pain. They may be fearful of performing activities that may cause pain. In some cases, the fear may be more disabling than the pain itself.
  
  
• Depression. Chronic pain and chronic depression are risk factors for suicide. When people experience both chronic pain and chronic depression, it is particularly dangerous.
  
  
• Changes in ability to cope. Some patients develop patterns of negative thinking that impede their ability to cope with pain. These include:
  
  
• Catastrophizing. Anticipating the worst.
  
  
• Filtering. Exaggerating the negative aspects of an experience and minimizing the positive ones.
  
  
• Personalizing. Automatically accepting blame when something bad happens.
  
  
• Generalizing. Viewing a troublesome event as the beginning of a never-ending cycle.
  
  
• Polarizing. Viewing situations as all good or all bad, black or white. Not recognizing the middle ground.
  
  
• Emotionalizing. Letting emotions control judgment. For example, a person who feels stupid is stupid.
  
  
• Difficulty with daily life. Some chronic pain patients experience problems with activities of daily living, such as sleep disturbances and disruption in work activities. Many pain conditions interfere with sleep, such as fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, myofascial pain syndrome, polymyalgia rheumatica, headaches, back pain, heartburn, restless legs syndrome, benign prostatic hyperplasia and neuropathy. Loss of sleep causes fatigue and increases sensitivity to pain. Sleep disorders may promote accidents and falls that can cause fractures or other trauma.

In addition, disability caused by conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis or advanced Lyme disease can lower self-esteem.

• Problems with interpersonal relationships. Some patients experience problems with family members, friends and co-workers.
  
  
• Altered body image. Diseases that can deform a patient’s joints, skin or other physical features, such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, often cause emotional distress, researchers have found.

In some cases, treatments for psychological conditions can contribute to pain conditions and pain treatments can contribute to psychological conditions. For example, antidepressants can disrupt sleep and sometimes trigger restless legs syndrome. Corticosteroids and some other medications can also hinder sleep. However, the benefits may outweigh the side effects, and patients should not discontinue medications without consulting their physician.