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Defensive High‐Anxious Individuals Demonstrate Difference Responses to Pain Management to Those with Lower Levels of Defensiveness and Anxiety
Author(s) -
Franklin Zoe C.,
Fowler Neil. E.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
pain practice
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.899
H-Index - 58
eISSN - 1533-2500
pISSN - 1530-7085
DOI - 10.1111/papr.12595
Subject(s) - anxiety , personality , psychological intervention , population , medicine , pain catastrophizing , clinical psychology , personality type , cognition , big five personality traits , psychiatry , physical therapy , chronic pain , psychology , social psychology , environmental health
Objectives Few studies have considered the effect of Weinberger et al.'s personality types on the management of pain. The aims of this study were to (1) identify whether the relationships between pain intensity, cognitive factors, and disability at 3 and 6 months postbaseline differ as a result of personality type; and (2) identify whether personality type affects the likelihood of achieving a minimal clinically important change in pain intensity or disability at 3 and 6 months. Method Patients completed a set of validated questionnaires assessing personality type, cognitive factors, pain intensity, and disability at 3 and 6 months postbaseline. Results A greater proportion of defensive high‐anxious individuals reported improvement for both pain (3 months = 25%; 6 months = 38%) and disability (3 months = 35%; 6 months = 50%) and showed stronger links between improvements in pain and disability and baseline psychological factors than nonextreme individuals. Conclusions The high proportion of defensive high‐anxious individuals highlights the need for psychologically based interventions to be delivered earlier in the care process. Stratifying the population, based on personality type, may allow for more targeted interventions, which could be more cost effective and reduce the number of patients remaining in the care system.