Self-esteem and chronic pain

Abstract

The self-esteem scores of 20 ‘pain-prone’ patients were compared with the scores of 20 ‘organic-pain’ patients and two groups of 20, one group an adult control, the other a student control. Self-esteem scores of the pain-prone patients were significantly lower than for the other three groups, who did not differ significantly from each other. The pain-prone patients were given a 12-week treatment programme involving psychological intervention. Further self-esteem scores were obtained for them and the controls. Treatment was associated with a significant increase in self-esteem for the pain-prone group, while the controls showed no significant difference from their earlier self-esteem scores. This result is discussed in terms of the importance of therapy directed at the psychological dimension of pain-prone patients.