The Role of Optimism and Pessimism in Chronic Pain Patients Adjustment

Abstract

This study analyses the relationships between patients' dispositional optimism and pessimism and the coping strategies they use. In addition, the coping strategies repercussions on adjustment to chronic pain were studied. Ninety-eight patients with heterogeneous chronic pain participated. The assessment tools were as follows: Life Orientation Test (LOT), the Vanderbilt Pain Management Inventory (VPMI), the McGill Pain Questionnaire (MPQ), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), and the Impairment and Functioning Inventory for Chronic Pain Patients (IFI). The hypothetical model establishes positive relationships between optimism and the use of active coping strategies, whereas pessimism is related to the use of passive coping. Active coping is associated with low levels of pain, anxiety, depression and impairment and high levels of functioning. However, passive coping is related to high levels of pain, anxiety, depression and impairment and low levels of functioning. The hypothetical model was empirically tested using the LISREL 8.20 software package and the unweighted least squares method. The results support the hypotheses formulated regarding the relations among optimism, pessimism, coping and adjust of chronic pain patients. By analysing optimism among chronic pain patients, clinicians could make better predictions regarding coping and adjustment.

Psychological risk and protective factors for disability in chronic low back pain – a longitudinal analysis in primary care

“…Second, people who experience more symptoms might feel more helpless and pessimistic which is associated with depression, passive coping (i.e. rest) and functional impairment [26, 65]. Finally, somatization could be a facet of Fibromyalgia which also includes pain spreading and fatigue.…”

“…They are defined as a patient’s potentials in dealing with his/her disease successfully (adaptive coping) [21]. In pain patients adaptive coping is cross-sectionally associated with higher pain-related self-efficacy [22] less depression, anxiety and distress [20, 23, 24], increased functioning and low levels of impairment [25, 26] and less pain [20, 26]. But again, longitudinal studies are scarce.…”

Optimism and the Experience of Pain: Benefits of Seeing the Glass as Half Full

“…Similarly, optimists reported attending less to painful sensations than pessimists in a sample of elderly osteoarthritis patients [32]. In addition to its associations with less attention to pain, optimism has also been reported to promote better pain-related functioning, less psychological distress, and less engagement in maladaptive cognitive processes such as pain catastrophizing [33, 34]. Along this vein, greater optimism was associated with higher levels of positive daily mood, more life satisfaction, and fewer pain-related activity limitations in patients with rheumatoid arthritis [28, 35].…”

“…Results showed that optimism was significantly associated with participants’ ability to habituate to repeated cold pain contacts; however, this effect was less pronounced for repeated heat pain contacts. Although it remains to be empirically tested, enhanced ability to adapt/habituate to repeat occurrences of pain could be one possible explanation for why optimism has been shown to be related with better adjustment in clinical studies [28, 33, 34, 36]. …”

Eficacia de un Tratamiento Cognitivo Comportamental (TCC) con apoyo de Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación (TICs) para el dolor lumbar crónico. Ensayo clínico aleatorizado

“…Los optimistas llevan a cabo una respuesta de confrontación que les conduce a mejores niveles de adaptación (Matusiewicz y Krzyszkowska, 2009;Ramírez-Maestre, Esteve y López, 2012;Wright et al, 2011). Cuando las estrategias centradas en el problema no son posibles, los pacientes orientan sus esfuerzos a la utilización de estrategias como la aceptación, el uso del humor y la reformulación positiva de la situación (Garofalo, 2000;Scheier, Carver y Bridges, 1994).…”