EMOTIONAL DISTRESS, PAIN CATASTROPHIZING AND EXPECTANCIES IN PATIENTS WITH LOW BACK PAIN

Low back pain (LBP) is ail important aspect of vertebral pathology. Due to its medical, social and financial importance, acute and chronic LBP is an important concern of the medical world. Pain catastrophizing and response expectancies are among the most robust psychological predictors of pain outcomes. Pain experience has been studied in relationship with pain catastrophizing oil one hand, and in relationship with emotional distress, and with response expectancies on the other hand, Fewer studies have looked at relationships with hope. The current study was designed to investigate all these variables in one research. We assessed 46 patients (aged 27 to 84, 17 men and 29 women) with LBP to see the relevance of and relations between pain catastrophizing (Pain Catastrophizing Scale), emotional distress (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale), pain outcomes (SF-McGill Pain Questionnaire) and expectancies and hopes for pain relief after treatment. Our results show that pain catastrophizing totally mediates the relationship between pain and emotional distress and is related to expectancies. Chronic pain patients have more negative expectancies and hopes for pain relief after treatment as compared to acute pain patients. Implications for research and treatment are discussed.