Accidents, anxiety and chronic pain.

Accident survivors comprise a major share of our referrals with chronic pain. Many suffer from phobias and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) which are associated with road vehicle accidents, with phobic avoidance, and with somatization. Amplification of pain by anxiety is not the rule, and the relationship between somatization and pain in complex. In most cases, more anxiety is associated with more dysfunction, but not with more pain. In a minority of cases, pain remits with the anxiety disorder.