Medically unexplained chronic pain - without identifiable somatic origin - is yet an insufficiently known and explored field in children and adolescents by international clinical works. This research aims to characterize somatic, psychological, psychopathological and environmental (particularly attachment styles and family functioning) processes trough an observational study with three pain management centers.

The study concerns children and adolescents from 7 to 17 years old, suffering of medically unexplained chronic pain and their parents who are referred to a pain center. It is composed of a somatic, psychological and family functioning assessment on the one hand and psychopathological and attachment evaluation on the other hand.

Participation in the study involves an additional visit to 1 day pain center to answer questionnaires about anxiety, family environment, depression and psychological testing

Inclusion Criteria:

• Children and adolescent with chronic pain no proven medical cause, type of painful somatic complaints within the scope of one of the following diagnoses to ICD-10 (International Classification of Diseases) and DSM-IV and DSM-V (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) to somatoform disorders, distinguishing between :

  • pain disorder
  • somatoform disorder
  • undifferentiated somatoform disorder

• Addressed to the pain centers or in pediatric chronic pain services hosting children.

• being fluently French-speaking and French-reading

Exclusion Criteria:

presence of current or past organic pathology including migraines and epilepsy, which may interfere with somatic expression of studied disorder

Children and adolescent with chronic pain