The Prevalence and Potential Role of Pain Beliefs When Managing Later-Life Pain

In this study of 154 community-dwelling older adults with chronic noncancer pain, we sought to assess participants’ beliefs about pain as well as pain management treatments and to determine the influence of those beliefs on participants’ willingness to undertake 3 physician-recommended pain treatments, that is, a pharmacologic, physical, and psychological therapy. Materials and Methods: A 16-item questionnaire was employed to ascertain participants’ pain beliefs, divided into 4 subscales representing: (1) negative beliefs about pharmacological treatments, (2) positive beliefs about physical treatment approaches, for example, exercise, (3) positive beliefs about psychological treatments, and (4) fatalistic beliefs about pain. Participants were asked to rate their willingness to undertake a pharmacologic, physical, or psychological therapy if their physician recommended that they do so. Agreement with each belief was measured, and we examined willingness to undertake each treatment as a function of pain belief subscale scores after controlling for relevant covariates. Results: Positive beliefs about physical treatments (eg, benefits of exercise) were the most strongly endorsed items on the pain beliefs questionnaire. All 3 treatment-focused pain beliefs subscales were significantly associated with willingness to undertake that form of treatment (eg, negative beliefs about pain medication use were associated with decreased willingness to take pain medication)...
Source: The Clinical Journal of Pain - Category: Anesthesiology Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research