Understanding Patients with Centralized Pain Conditions

It is now recognized that the phenotypic features of centralized pain exist in many common pain conditions. The 2011 Survey Criteria for Fibromyalgia can be used as a surrogate of centralized pain to detect patients with fibromyalgia-like or centralized pain characteristics. Patients with higher fibromyalgia survey scores describe a more negative pain phenotype preoperatively, including more opioid use, higher pain scores, higher levels of anxiety and depression, and lower physical function. Dr. Brummett discusses the patient with a “different physiologic make up.”