Pain perception and experience from a psychological perspective

Lau, Rosanna (2018) Pain perception and experience from a psychological perspective. Doctoral thesis, University of East Anglia.

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Abstract

Introduction: Chronic pain is a debilitating problem worldwide and has been found to be strongly associated with negative psychosocial consequences for both individual and society.

Aim: To understand the pain experiences of chronic pain patients from a psychological perspective.

Method: A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted to appraise the quality of structured psychological intervention for adult chronic pain patients, and to examine the efficacy of psychological intervention on pain severity, pain catastrophizing and depression. An empirical study was conducted to examine the indirect relationship between pain severity and depression through the interaction of pain catastrophizing and pain self-efficacy in the sample of HK Chinese (n = 664) and UK British (n = 29) community-dwelling older people with chronic pain. Mediation analyses and moderated mediation analyses using bootstrapping sample procedures were performed. Independent samples T-test was conducted to examine levels of pain self-efficacy and pain catastrophizing between HK and UK participants.

Results: The meta-analysis results revealed that psychological intervention had a significant small to moderate effect size on pain catastrophizing and depression, but not on pain severity as compared to the control groups. The empirical study results indicated a significant mediating effect in the relationship between pain severity and depression through pain catastrophizing. A significant moderated mediating effect was found, indicating that pain severity increases the level of depression indirectly through increasing pain catastrophizing when pain self-efficacy is low. Results demonstrated that HK participants had lower pain catastrophizing and higher pain self-efficacy levels than the UK participants. 4

Discussion: Cognitive factors played important roles in understanding pain experiences for people with chronic pain. Psychological interventions targeting on addressing pain catastrophizing and enhancing pain self-efficacy should be considered for chronic pain patients. Further investigation is needed to clarify the influence of cultural factors on pain catastrophizing and self-efficacy.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences
Depositing User:	Users 9280 not found.
Date Deposited:	25 Sep 2018 09:43
Last Modified:	25 Sep 2018 09:43
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/68342
DOI:

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