CHRONIC BACK-PAIN INTENSITY AND PERSONALITY - MULTIVARIATE-ANALYSIS

It was supposed, that regression analysis of pain intensity scores is comparable with factor analysis in intelligence or personality measurement. Sample of 78 patients with chronic back pain was tested by VAS, PEN, Loc (Locus of control scale), N5 and MFS (Mood and feeling scales). It was hypothesized, that pain intensity (VAS score) correlates with affective-related traits Neuroticism and Extraversion, with cognitive trait Externality, with Number and Intensity of neurotic symptoms, and with parameters operationally defined ''depressive mood'', ''anxious mood'' and ''angry and hostile mood''. The battery used explains 36%, L-scale, Intensity and Number of neurotic symptoms together explain 15% of the pain intensity. State (mood) variables more closely correlate with VAS than personality traits do. The depressive, anxious and angry or hostile states yield an important system in the psychological picture of the chronic pain patients, dependent both on personality structure (Extraversion and Locus of control especially) and on pain intensity.