Abstract

SOUCASE, B.; MONSALVE, V.  and  SORIANO, J. F.. Coping with chronic pain: the role of assessment variables and coping strategies for the prediction of anxiety and depression in a sample of patients with chronic pain. Rev. Soc. Esp. Dolor [online]. 2005, vol.12, n.1, pp.8-16. ISSN 1134-8046.

Objective: The objective of this research was to study the relations and interactions between cognitive assessment procedures and coping strategies proposed in the Lazarus and Folkman model (1984) as processes mediating the adaptation of patients to their pain, using as adaptation criteria the level of anxiety (STAI/R) and depression (BDI), in order to determine variables and coping strategies that predict a better adaptation to chronic pain, taking the variables separately. Material and methods: The population study included 168 patients with chronic pain attending the Multidisciplinary Pain Unit at the General University Hospital of Valencia. The patients answered to a first set of questionnaires used to record social and demographical data (age, sex, marital status, education level), clinical diagnosis and pain severity measured on a visual analogical scale (VAS). Afterwards, they answered to another set of questionnaires focused on the assessment of pain, such as pain assessment variables, pain coping strategies (PCS), and level of anxiety and depression measured on STAI/R and BDI, respectively. Results and conclusions: On a descriptive level and considering the whole study population, the results show that pain severity reported by patients ranged between moderate and severe, that patients perceived their pain as exceeding their own coping resources and that patients rated low their self-effectiveness in order to manage, control or relieve pain, this being a disabling and limiting factor in their everyday life. In our study population, the most frequently used strategies for coping with pain were self-assertion, search of information and religion, and their anxiety and depression scores were moderate or high. On a predictive level, both anxiety and depression can be mainly explained by assessment variables, being the emotional repression the most relevant variable for predicting anxiety and the feeling of loss the most relevant variable for predicting depression (things that could be done and enjoyed in the past, but not anymore).

Keywords : Chronic pain; Assessment; Anxiety; Depression; Transactional model.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )