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BackgroundThe avoidance-endurance model suggests both fear-avoidance responses and endurance-related responses could affect the chronicity of pain. Proper pain intervention requires measuring fear-avoidance responses and endurance-related responses but no Korean language questionnaire has yet been made to measure them. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the validity and reliability of the Korean version of the Avoidance-Endurance Behavior Questionnaire (K-AEQ-Behavior) by adapting the behavioral responses of Avoidance-Endurance Questionnaire into Korean language.MethodsThe K-AEQ-Behavior was forward and backward translated based on the standards for instrument translation. A total of 136 outpatients with chronic pain of a duration exceeding 3 months were recruited from a pain center at a university hospital in Seoul, Korea. Two weeks later, the K-AEQ-Behavior was re-administered to 36 patients for test-retest reliability. Exploratory factor analysis was performed using principle axis factoring. The internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and concurrent validity of the K-AEQ-Behavior were measured by Cronbach’s ⍺, intraclass correlation coefficient, and Pearson correlation coefficient, respectively.ResultsAlthough the four-factor structure (23 items) was derived in the original study, the two-factor structure of avoidance behavior and endurance behavior (21 items) was derived in the exploratory factor analysis of the Korean version in this study. Other results indicated that K-AEQ-Behavior has good internal consistency, test-retest reliability and concurrent validity.ConclusionThis study suggests that the K-AEQ-Behavior is a reliable and valid instrument for assessing avoidance behavior and endurance behavior in patients with chronic pain.

Background: Many patients with complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) have been known to be at risk of suicide, due to severe pain and its comorbid conditions. The risk of suicide may be associated with affective instability, which is an indicator of emotional dysregulation. Particularly, unstable shifts in negative emotions are difficult to cope with, which may result in individuals feeling uncontrollable, hopeless, and entrapped. This study aimed to examine the role of affective instability in the relationship between pain intensity and suicide risk (suicidal ideation and impulsivity) in patients with CRPS, by employing a daily diary. Methods: Twenty-three patients registered at the CRPS Association in Korea were asked to complete a day-to-day routine for 15 days, followed by a diary composed of pain intensity, suicidal ideation, impulsivity, and positive and negative affects. Results: Results showed that the interactions between negative affective instability and daily pain intensity were statistically significant on daily suicidal ideation (coefficient = 0.41, t (21) = 2.56, P < 0.050) and daily impulsiveness (coefficient = 1.20, t (19) = 3.35, P < 0.010). However, those between positive affective instability and daily pain intensity were not. Conclusions: This study is the first attempt to investigate the role of affective instability on the relationship between daily pain intensity and daily suicide risk in patients with CRPS. Our findings suggest that health professionals pay considerable attention to the instability of negative affects when assessing and managing patients with CRPS at risk of suicide.

We examined the gender dependence of the relationships between sensory and affective pain and pain catastrophizing. Study participants were 170 people who were receiving treatment for chronic pain at a university pain clinic in Daegu, Republic of Korea. For men, higher levels of sensory pain were associated with greater pain catastrophizing at low and average levels of affective pain, but not at a high level of affective pain. For women, higher levels of affective pain were associated with greater pain catastrophizing, regardless of the degree of sensory pain. These results suggest that sensory pain, affective pain, and their combination may have gender-dependent effects on pain catastrophizing in people who are experiencing chronic pain. Most importantly, affective pain appears to play a major role in pain catastrophizing, regardless of gender and, for men, the role of sensory pain in pain catastrophizing requires consideration.

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