Premium
The impact of chronic pain on the self‐concept
Author(s) -
Armentrout David P.
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
journal of clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.124
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1097-4679
pISSN - 0021-9762
DOI - 10.1002/1097-4679(197907)35:3<517::aid-jclp2270350309>3.0.co;2-6
Subject(s) - chronic pain , psychology , pain catastrophizing , perception , self concept , physical therapy , clinical psychology , medicine , psychiatry , developmental psychology , neuroscience
Compared self‐concepts of three groups, medical patients, chronic low back pain patients and chronic head pain patients ( N = 60) to determine (1) whether chronic pain patients have self‐perceptions that differ from other medical patients; (2) whether changes in self‐perception are limited to phsysical attributes and capacities; and finally (3) whether persons who suffer different types of chronic pain would have differing self‐concepts. Significantly lower self‐concepts were obtained from groups of head pain and low back pain patients. Self‐concept patterns for the two pain groups were quite similar with the exception of two self‐concept components that were significantly lower for the head pain group. Differences were explained in terms of loss of many normal functions and disruption of normal life‐styles. Implications for treatment of pain patients and for training of health professionals were discussed.