Chronic primary pain isn’t a primary diagnosis

Chronic primary pain as a primary diagnosis and as the target for (demonstrably ineffective) treatment is a flawed and retrogressive concept. Its definition is oxymoronic, describing most “primary” chronic pain as of musculoskeletal origin, which is actually poorly understood secondary pain.

A label of chronic primary pain encourages referral of the problem back to patients owing to its self-generating, interpretive, or long term nature, but it is not a medical …