engleski

Exploring personality and coping strategies in chronic pain patients

Background and aims. A large number of research has tried to identify relationship between personality and chronic pain, but majority concentrates on specific traits or specific causes of pain. Hence, the aim of the present study was to explore the role of different psychological factors, specifically personality traits and pain coping strategies in heterogeneous group of chronic pain patients and to evaluate different coping strategies as mediators in relation between personality traits on one side and perceived pain intensity on the other. Methods. The results were gathered on a sample of 94 participants (79 women and 14 me ; mean age was 62, 6) who suffer from chronic pain for 3, 5 years in average and are treated in pain clinic at University Clinical Hospital “Sisters of Mercy”, Zagreb. They completed a set of questionnaires which gathered sociodemographic variables, personality traits (HEXACO PI-R), pain coping strategies (CSQ) and perceived pain (SF-MPQ). Results. A set of correlations and regression analysis was performed and results showed that participants who tend to catastrophize while coping with pain perceive on average higher pain intensities. Relationship between neuroticism and pain intensity measured by SF-MPQ was mediated by catastrophizing. Conclusions. In general, these findings suggest the importance of targeting specific coping strategies for modification in the treatment of patients with chronic pain. The results also showed the need for more richer understanding of the role of personality in the coping process.

chronic pain ; coping ; personality

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