Does pain etiology have a moderation and/or mediation effect on the association between pain intensity/interference and psychological functioning associated variables?
Dear Alexandra,
That is an interesting question indeed. What do you exactly mean by pain etiology? Are you referring to the new ICD-11 classification (see paper attached), or to the difference between traumatic vs. non-traumatic origin of the pain complaints?
Hi Alexandra,
I did some work quite a while ago now for my PhD looking at chronic cancer pain and rheumatoid arthritis pain, and found little association with stage/type of disease or perceived cause of pain and psychological outcomes. Catastrophic thinking about pain and fear of pain (focusing more on beliefs about it's consequences and impact in the future) appeared to be more important than etioloy.
We published the following paper, which doesn't address your question directly but has a lot of relevant literature in the references:
A daily process design study of attentional pain control strategies in the self-management of cancer pain
By: Buck, Rhiannon; Morley, Stephen
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PAIN Volume: 10 Issue: 5 Pages: 385-398 Published: JUL 2006
Acute pain studies have been a little different, where the perceived meaning of sensations (e.g. telling people that water they are immersing their hand in is either cold or hot) can affect it's threat value and therefore attention paid to it, but the relationship doesn't seem to be as simple for naturally occurring chronic pain.
Hope this helps,
Rhiannon
I completely agree with Rhiannon's comment! Here is a publication that might be of interest to you:
Severeijns, R, Vlaeyen, JW, van den Hout, MA, & Weber, WE. (2001). Pain catastrophizing predicts pain intensity, disability, and psychological distress independent of the level of physical impairment. Clin J Pain, 17(2), 165-172.
Thank you both for your kind reply to my question.
By pain etiology I mean the cause/diagnosis underlying chronic pain, very much as Rhiannon understood it.
Thank you for these helpful references.
I don't have any references to add to the above mentioned ones, but just a comment. I have been treating chronic pain patients for 26 years, and I do think that the lack of a clear diagnosis/etiology perpetuates catastrophizing and lack of acceptance. Also, even when patients do receive a diagnosis, its not cut and dry. More important than the diagnosis, I think, is their understanding of the biopsychosocial aspects of chronic pain. So I think you are on the right track.
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