Revista de la Sociedad Española del Dolor
versión impresa ISSN 1134-8046
SOUCASE, B.; MONSALVE, V.; SORIANO, J. F. y ANDRES, J. de. Pain coping strategies and quality of life in patients diagnosed of fibromyalgia. Rev. Soc. Esp. Dolor [online]. 2004, vol.11, n.6, pp.45-51. ISSN 1134-8046.
Objective: The objective of this research focused on the study of coping strategies used by patients to face pain, these being defined as the thoughts and actions taken by individuals in their efforts to handle pain and their impact on the patient quality of life. Material and methods: The study population included 32 women diagnosed of fibromyalgia that attended for the first time the Psychology Service of the Multidisciplinary Pain Unit at the Consorcio Hospital General Universitario de Valencia prior medical examination. The patients completed a set of questionnaires that, in addition to obtain sociodemographic variables (age, sex, marital status, educational level), the following was assessed: pain severity determined using a VAS (visual analogic scale), pain valuation (for example, "pain depends on me", "I can anticipate when it is going to hurt"...), pain coping strategies based on the pain coping questionnaire (PCQ) and the quality of life questionnaire ICV-2R. Results and conclusions: At the descriptive level, the results show that the patients reported a moderately severe pain, being self-assertion and information seeking the pain coping strategies more frequently used. Furthermore, they presented a quality of life index lower than the general population. At the correlational level, no significant relationship has been found between the general quality of life index and the pain coping strategies, although the use of more passive coping strategies (such as religion) are significantly and positively associated to dimensions of quality of life that involve certain degree of maladjustment of the patient to the disease, while the use of more active pain coping strategies (such as distraction and mental self-control) are significantly and negatively associated to such dimensions.
Palabras clave : Chronic pain; Coping; Quality of life; Fibromyalgia.