Relieving Chronic Pain: Psychosomatic Mechanisms and Psychological Interventions in Fibromyalgia and Chronic Headache

Pain is one of the most important manifestations of the disease state and significantly affects people\'s quality of life. According to the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP), pain is not only a sensory experience related to the activation of the somato-sensory nervous system, but also an emotional experience, resulting from the cortical and emotional processing of nociceptive signals. This means that perceived pain is the result of a complex interaction between physical sensations and emotional responses. Pain is classified according to two main criteria: duration and pathophysiological mechanism. In terms of duration, pain can be transient, acute, chronic, or persistent. In terms of pathophysiology, pain can be nociceptive, inflammatory, neuropathic, or nociplastic. The latter, in particular, is characterized by altered nociceptive function, without obvious per