Abstract
Chronic pain is a multidimensional experience associated with psychosocial (e.g., pain-related beliefs and pain coping responses) and spiritual factors. Spirituality is a universal aspect of the human experience that has been hypothesized to impact pain experience via its effects on pain, physical/psychological function, resilience and pain-related beliefs, and pain coping responses. However, research evaluating the associations between measures of spirituality and measures of pain and function in individuals with chronic pain is limited. This study seeks to address this limitation. Participants were 62 Portuguese adults with chronic musculoskeletal pain. Participants completed measures of spirituality, pain intensity, physical and psychological function, and pain coping responses. Spirituality as hope and a positive perspective toward life was positively and moderately associated with better psychological function and coping responses of ignoring pain sensations and coping self-statements. Spirituality as a search for meaning and sense of purpose was positively and moderately associated with the coping response of task persistence. These findings suggest the possibility that spirituality may be a useful resource for facilitating psychological adjustment, potentially promoting the use of some adaptive pain coping responses.
Highlights
Chronic pain is a significant health problem estimated to affect about one in four adults [1,2]
An increasing body of research over the last few decades has identified a number of nonbiological variables, such as psychosocial factors, spirituality, and religiosity, that are associated with pain severity and physical and psychological function in individuals with chronic pain [8,9,10,11,12,13]
Participants reported a moderate pain intensity level (NRS) on average and significant physical and psychological dysfunction, as evidenced by mean scores of physical (SF-12 PCS: M 1⁄4 38.88, standard deviations (SD) 1⁄4 23.28) and psychological (SF12 MCS: M 1⁄4 58.06, SD 1⁄4 20.66) function lower than the normative data set for healthy Portuguese individuals for both physical (25th percentile 1⁄4 60, M 1⁄4 76) and psychological (25th percentile 1⁄4 57.14, M 1⁄4 71.24) function reported in previous research [60,76]
Summary
Chronic pain is a significant health problem estimated to affect about one in four adults [1,2]. An increasing body of research over the last few decades has identified a number of nonbiological variables, such as psychosocial factors (e.g., mood, pain-related beliefs, and pain coping responses), spirituality, and religiosity, that are associated with pain severity and physical and psychological function (hereafter referred to as “function”) in individuals with chronic pain [8,9,10,11,12,13]. These findings support the view of chronic pain as a multidimensional, subjective biopsychosocial and spiritual experience [14,15,16,17]. For the purpose of this study, we define spirituality as the extent to which a person has or is searching for meaning and purpose in life, as feelings of transcendence and connectedness to a higher power, and as a resource of hope in the face of adversities in life [20,22,23]
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