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How chronic pain patients cope with pain: Relation to treatment outcome in a multidisciplinary pain clinic

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Abstract

One hundred male and 100 female chronic pain patients in a multidisciplinary pain clinic completed a 34-item Pain Coping Questionnaire (PCQ). Factor analysis identified four pain coping factors: self-management, helplessness, social support, and medical remedies. Multiple-regression analyses were conducted to determine the relation between PCQ factors and measures of adjustment at admission to the pain program as well as admission to discharge changes in adjustment measures. The following concepts relevant to coping with chronic pain were defined: cognitive strategies, self-efficacy, helplessness, catastrophizing, and cognitive distortion. Suggestions were made for integrating these concepts in the development of scales for assessing strategies for coping with chronic pain.

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Kleinke, C.L. How chronic pain patients cope with pain: Relation to treatment outcome in a multidisciplinary pain clinic. Cogn Ther Res 16, 669–685 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01175406

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