PAIN DESCRIPTION AND ILLNESS BEHAVIOR IN PAIN DIARIES OF FIBROMYALGIA AND RHEUMATOID-ARTHRITIS PATIENTS

Intensity, sensory-discriminative and affective-motivational quality of pain were assessed over a period of 14 days by means of the Bonn Pain Diary in 16 fibromyalgia (FM) patients and 18 rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. Additionally, patients reported pain and sleep duration, daily irratations, and pain-reducing interventions. FM patients differed from RA-patients by higher scores in the sensoric-discriminative component of pain. The patterns of preferred pain descriptors were syndrome-specific. However, the two groups did not differ in the overall daily pain duration; whereas in RA-patients the pain attacks occurred mostly until 1 0 a. m. In FM-patients, the time-course of pain over 14 days showed higher variability compared to RA-patients. RA patients sleep longer than FM-patients. Furthermore, the groups differ statistically significantly with respect to interactions of scaled pain with the preferred interventions in order to reduce pain. Conclusions concerning pain-referring cognitions are drawn. In general, the evaluation of self-reports about pain by behavioral parameters is recommended.