The gate-control theory posited three dimensions of pain: a sensory-physiologic dimension, a motivational-affective dimension and a cognitive-evaluative dimension. A number of psychosocial models of the pain-depression relationship followed in the footsteps of gate-control theory and further emphasised the importance of psychological processes in the experience of chronic pain. The first proposed pathway for the relationship between depression and chronic pain is that depression is responsible for the onset or maintenance of pain in individuals who suffer from both sets of symptoms. The consequence hypothesis views depression as secondary to chronic pain. The relationship between chronic pain and depression has often been explained within a cognitive-behavioural framework. Antidepressant medications are used widely in chronic and neuropathic pain conditions for their antinociceptive effects. The mounting evidence for the implication of multiple systems in the experience of and recovery from depression and pain provides a wide array of intervention possibilities.