How accurate are parental chronic pain histories provided by offspring?

Abstract

Previous work suggests possible relationships between offspring-reported parental history of chronic pain (CP) and offsprings' personal chronic pain experience. This study examined reliability of offsprings' reports of parental CP history based on direct comparison with confirmed parental reports. Participants included 108 male and female college students who completed a questionnaire assessing presence/absence and locations of any past or present CP lasting greater than 3 months. Information on maternal and paternal CP history was obtained using a similar questionnaire based both on offspring reports and on reports provided directly by offsprings' parents (for 75 participants). Results indicated relatively high sensitivity (0.79-0.94) but modest specificity (0.55-0.63) for offspring reports of parental CP history, and a tendency to overestimate the incidence of CP in both parents. Significant (Ps<0.001) but moderate inter-rater reliability was noted for judgments of parental CP history (kappas=0.41-0.53). Reliability generally decreased when offspring were asked to report on specific locations of parental CP. Offspring-reported parental CP history predicted (Ps<0.05) presence and number of locations at which offspring reported having personally experienced CP, consistent with previous studies. Results indicated that these relationships were not mediated by social desirability, negative affect, or catastrophizing cognitions. In contrast to results for offspring-reported data, confirmed parental CP history reports failed to predict offsprings' personal CP history. These results raise questions as to the validity of previous findings of relationships between family pain history and individuals' own experience of CP.

Parental chronic pain in relation to chronic pain in their adult offspring: family-linkage within the HUNT Study, Norway

“…Thus, one may speculate that the occurrence of CMP in the adult offspring is strongly influenced by genetic factors. Conversely, it has been suggested that children of parents who display pain behavior adopt similar behaviors and are also more likely to report pain than their peers [32, 33]. However, our data did not allow us to decide the relative contribution of genetic and environmental factors to CMP.…”

“…It is well established that independent pain reports from parents and offspring are necessary to achieve acceptable validity in family-linkage studies [32]. We are only aware of two previous studies that have investigated parent-offspring associations within the same study population using independent pain reports from parents and offspring [14, 15].…”

Heightened Temporal Summation of Pain in Patients with Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders and History of Trauma

“…The Persistent Pain Questionnaire (PPQ) was used to assess history and location of non-abdominal chronic pain (32). Participants were asked to identify locations of both current and lifetime chronic pain based on standard body locations described by the International Association for the Study of Pain.…”

Hypoalgesia related to elevated resting blood pressure is absent in adolescents and young adults with a history of functional abdominal pain

“…First, 41% of FAP participants and 11% of healthy participants reported experiencing daily or near daily pain in the 3 months prior to the study procedures. This latter finding is not surprising given results of studies regarding the relatively common occurrence of persistent pain in the general population [e.g., 5,6,18]. Although ongoing chronic pain at the time of the study would not seriously confound general conclusions regarding the effects of chronic pain on BP-related hypoalgesia, it would potentially influence conclusions regarding whether such changes persist once FAP is resolved.…”

“…Of the 95 patients recruited for the FAP group, one had since been diagnosed with Crohn’s disease (an organic abdominal pain condition) and was excluded from the final sample. Based on information provided by all participants on the Persistent Pain Questionnaire (modified to assess persistent pain in the past 3 months)[18], 41% of the FAP group and 11% of the Healthy group were experiencing daily or near daily pain in at least one body location for the 3 months prior to this study. Mean overall clinical pain intensity in the past month rated on a 0–5 scale (anchored with “none” and “very severe”) was in the “mild” range for both groups, but was significantly higher in FAP group participants than in Healthy participants (see Table 1).…”