Although visceral pain is very common, the recognition of chronic visceral pain as a chronic pain syndrome is fairly new in the clinical subspecialties of gynecology, urology, gastroenterology and cardiology. Much of what we know about the pathophysiological mechanisms of pain is derived from experimental studies of somatic and not visceral nociception. Traditionally it was assumed that visceral pain is simply a variant of somatic pain; however, there is growing evidence that, although there are some similarities between the mechanisms of visceral and somatic pain, there are also very important differences.
The purpose of this article is to provide a concise update on the epidemiological and clinical aspects of the visceral pain syndromes, which present an unmet medical need, and to discuss recent advances in the understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms of visceral pain, highlighting where novel therapeutic approaches might emerge in the near future.