Associations among pain, pain attitudes, and pain behaviors in patients with metastatic breast cancer. Academic Article uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • Metastatic breast cancer (MBC) patients often experience pain which can trigger pain behaviors, such as distorted ambulation. Psychological variables, such as individuals' attitudes toward pain, play a role in pain intervention. In this study, we used the cognitive-behavioral model of pain to examine the influence of patients' attitudes toward pain (as measured by the survey of pain attitudes or SOPA) on their pain behaviors (as measured by the pain behaviors checklist). Two hundred-one MBC patients completed surveys at treatment initiation and again 3 and 6 months later. Linear Mixed Model with repeated measures analyses showed that SOPA-solicitude, SOPA-emotions, SOPA-cure, SOPA-disability, and SOPA-medication pain attitudes were consistently significantly associated with pain behaviors at each assessment time point. Additionally, the belief that a medical cure for pain exists buffered the positive association between pain severity and pain behaviors. Our findings support and extend the cognitive-behavioral model of pain and suggest that it may be useful to target pain attitudes in pain management interventions for MBC patients.

publication date

  • August 13, 2013

Research

keywords

  • Breast Neoplasms
  • Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
  • Pain

Identity

PubMed Central ID

  • PMC3923846

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 84905115693

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1007/s10865-013-9529-2

PubMed ID

  • 23943140

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 37

issue

  • 4