The Roles of Pain Coping Strategies in Adjustment to Chronic Pain

Pain coping strategies have been shown to be associated with severity of pain and well as physical and psychological functioning among patients with chronic pain. Assessment of coping strategies has received increasing attention and several measures of cognitive and behavioural coping have been developed. To date, the impact of coping responses on adjustment to chronic pain has not been examined in the Iranian chronic pain population. Present study: (1) investigate the reliability and validity of the Iranian adaptation to the Coping Strategy Questionnaire (IR-CSQ) and (2) examine the relationships between the IR-CSQ individual subscales and severity of pain, physical disability and depression. Two hundred and thirty one male chronic pain subjects with mean age of 41.43 years (sd = 10.39) completed the IR-CSQ and 3 measures of adjustment (present pain intensity, physical disability and depression). To determine the reliability of each of the 7 different subscales in the IR-CSQ, coefficient alphas were computed, using all 6 items in each subscale. The coefficient alphas were high, ranging from 0.74 to 0.83 which indicates that the 7 subscales of the IR-CSQ have satisfactory reliability (i.e., internal consistency). The co relational analyses of the data revealed that more Catsatrophising was associated with more severe pain, physical disability and depression. Also, more use of Ignoring Pain and Coping Self-Statement strategies was significantly associated with less severity of physical disability and depression. The co relational analyses also showed that higher perception of coping efficacy is associated with less pain, physical disability and depression. A series of 3 multiple regression analyses were performed to determine the relationship between the IR-CSQ subscales and the 3 adjustment measures (present pain intensity, depression and physical disability). The results indicated that while higher Catastrophising in chronic pain was a significant predictor of more severe pain, physical disability and depression, the higher use of Ignoring Pain Sensations and Coping-self-Statement were predictive of less depression. The findings of the present study lend additional support to the importance of pain coping strategies in understanding patients’ adjustment to chronic pain. In general, while greater Catastrophising was predictive of more severe pain, depression and physical disability, the greater use of Ignoring Pain Sensations and Coping Self-Statement strategies were predictive of lower levels of depression. The clinical implications of these findings are discussed.