Plata-Muñoz ME, Castillo-Olivares ME, Guevara-López UM

Language: Spanish
References: 0
Page: 16-23
PDF size: 97.33 Kb.

ABSTRACT

The evaluation of chronic pain makes it possible to know the characteristics and repercussions of the patient’s pain, to enhance the reliability of diagnosis, to identify those variables that elicit, maintain or worsen the pain, to select key behaviors to be modified, as well as the most adequate therapy for each patient, and to assess the treatment’s effectiveness. This study evaluated a number of psychological variables in patients with chronic pain, to find out if there ¿is a significant relation between each of them and the topography of pain.An interview and a battery of psychological tests were applied to 70 patients attending our Pain Clinic for the first time, in order to assess depression,anxiety, coping strategies, perceived control, self-efficacy, and functional disability. A non-experimental, sectional and explanatory design was used.Analysis revealed that the intensity of pain relates significantly to depression and catastrophizing,whereas functional disability correlated with anxiety and depression. Some psychological variables were found to have little or no relation with pain.The results ratified findings from previous research on the assessment of psychological factors and their relation to pain, which is important for the management of pain in a multidisciplinary fashion.