Pain, anger and illness behaviour

Abstract

Abstract A 52-item Illness Behaviour Questionnaire (I.B.Q.) was administered to 100 patients referred for the management of pain that had not responded adequately to conventional treatment. A comparison group of 40 patients attending rheumatology, radiotherapy, pulmonary, and physiotherapy clinics, that reported pain as a prominent symptom, also completed the I.B.Q. Responses to two items from the questionnaire assessing the frequency and expression of angry feelings were used to classify patients. Patients from the intractable pain group reported an incidence of anger inhibition (53%) significantly higher than that of the comparison group (33%). Within the intractable pain group, patients' reports of the frequency and expression of angry feelings were found to be related to more general aspects of their illness behaviour. Patients who inhibited anger were more likely to have a “psychological” view of their symptoms and to be affectively disturbed. Patients who angered easily were more likely to be hypochondriacal as well as affectively disturbed. The findings of this study indicate that individual differences in illness behaviour must be recognized as influencing observed relationships between pain and anger.