For what I ran across, it seems like childhood trauma is accociated with increased pain syndromes in small retrospective studes but not large prospective studies. However I didn't do a detailed review, this is just what I came across accidentaly looking for other medical information. Putting these in
www.PubMed.org and looking for more articles might get much more information if you are interested.
On the other hand it is now becoming apparent that chronic pain causes changes in your brain (called central hypersensizitation, see, for example,
http://www.wfubmc.edu/nba/faculty/coghill/coghill.html ) so it seems not improbable that people exposed to painful childhood abuse might have more pain. Childhood neglect and childhood PTSD also cause brain changes according to my psychologist friends. I don't know if those changes also affect systems involved in pain processing.
I wonder if the effect of trauma is not that those patients are more likely to develop psychosomatic issues as the docs offen claim but that the abuse sets up conditions that make it more likely for the patient to develop central hypersenstization if they do get injuried as those parts of the nervous systems are already partially injuied. Probably someone has already looked at that since there seems to be a lot of research in this area with the advent of fMRI and PET scanners.
Clin J Pain. 1993 Dec;9(4):260-5.
Childhood psychological trauma and chronic refractory low-back pain.
Schofferman J, Anderson D, Hines R, Smith G, Keane G.
San Francisco Spine Institute, California.
OBJECTIVE: To examine the correlation between childhood psychological trauma(s) and refractory back pain in patients with and patients without prior spine surgery. DESIGN: Retrospective chart review survey of 101 consecutive patients who had undergone multidisciplinary evaluation for refractory back pain. SETTING: Private practice, tertiary care spine center. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Each psychological risk factor (physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional neglect or abuse, abandonment, and chemically dependent caregiver) was rated as present or absent. Spinal pathology was graded as significant or not significant. RESULTS: There were 56 patients with failed back surgery syndrome, 28 men and 28 women, with a mean age of 43 and mean pain duration of 45 months. There were 45 patients with no prior surgery, 26 men and 19 women, with a mean age of 43 and mean pain duration of 33 months. In the failed back surgery syndrome group, 27 (48%) had three or more risks and 39 (70%) had two or more. When the 12 patients with significant pathology are not considered, 24 of the remaining 44 (55%) patients had three or more risks. In the group with no prior surgery, 26 (58%) had three or more risks and 38 (84%) had two or more. When the five patients with significant pathology are not considered, 24 (60%) had three or more risks. CONCLUSIONS: Multiple childhood psychological traumas may predispose a person to chronic low back pain. In patients in this setting with refractory low back pain with or without prior lumbar spine surgery, three or more childhood psychological risk factors are prevalent, especially in patients with minimal structural pathology.
Long-term prospective study finds no association between childhood trauma and adult pain complaints. This is the only prospective study of this issue in the medical literature. All other research that purports to establish a causal connection between childhood trauma and adult pain has been retrospective:
Pain. 2001 May;92(1-2):283-93.
Childhood victimization and pain in adulthood: a prospective investigation.
Raphael KG, Widom CS, Lange G.
Department of Psychiatry, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, New Jersey Medical School, 30 Bergen Street, ADMC 14, Newark, NJ 07107, USA.
raphaekg@umdnj.edu
Evidence of the relationship between childhood abuse and pain problems in adulthood has been based on cross-sectional studies using retrospective self-reports of childhood victimization. The objective of the current study was to determine whether childhood victimization increases risk for adult pain complaints, using prospective information from documented cases of child abuse and neglect. Using a prospective cohort design, cases of early childhood abuse or neglect documented between 1967 and 1971 (n = 676) and demographically matched controls (n = 520) were followed into young adulthood. The number of medically explained and unexplained pain complaints reported at follow-up (1989-1995) was examined. Assessed prospectively, physically and sexually abused and neglected individuals were not at risk for increased pain symptoms. The odds of reporting one or more unexplained pain symptoms was not associated with any childhood victimization or specific types (i.e. sexual abuse, physical abuse, or neglect). In contrast, the odds of one or more unexplained pain symptoms was significantly associated with retrospective self-reports of all specific types of childhood victimization. These findings indicate that the relationship between childhood victimization and pain symptoms in adulthood is more complex than previously thought. The common assumption that medically unexplained pain is of psychological origin should be questioned. Additional research conducting comprehensive physical examinations with victims of childhood abuse and neglect is recommended.