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Revista de la Sociedad Española del Dolor
Print version ISSN 1134-8046
Abstract
RASCON MARTINEZ, D. M.; BAUTISTA SANCHEZ, S. G.; DUQUE ALARCON, X. and FRESAN ORELLANA, A.. Comparative study of personality in patients with chronic low back pain and control subjects with the use of the Temperament and Character Inventory. Rev. Soc. Esp. Dolor [online]. 2012, vol.19, n.2, pp.59-65. ISSN 1134-8046.
Personality has an important role in the way patients with chronic low back pain face pain. Some personality features have been associated to the development and the maintenance of chronic pain. Studies of chronic low back pain and personality according to the psychobiological model of personality are scarce and will have a heuristic value to promote research in this field. Objectives: to compare temperament and character dimensions between patients with chronic low back pain and control subjects; ant to compare personality features between patients with low intensity pain and those with pain of moderate/severe intensity. Method: a total of 46 patients with chronic low back pain were recruited from the Hospital General de México and were matched by age and gender with 46 control subjects. Clinical features of the disorder were assessed. Personality dimensions were evaluated with the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI). Results: patients exhibited higher scores on the temperament dimension "novelty seeking" (NS) and lower scores on "harm avoidance" (HA), also, lower scores were found on the character dimension "cooperativeness" (CO). Patients with moderate/severe pain reported a tendency to a higher HA. Discussion: our results support the attribution fear/avoidance model which presumes that catastrophic interpretations of pain give rise to fear and avoidant behaviors which worsens the pain problem. The study of personality in patients with chronic low back pain gives new information related to the psychosocialinterventions required for these patients.
Keywords : Chronic low back pain; Pain; Personality; Temperament; Character.
