Chronic pain in children

ScienceDirect - Pain : The impact of chronic pain in children and adolescents: Development and initial validation of a child and parent version of the Pain Experience Questionnaire

doi:10.1016/j.pain.2007.06.002 How to Cite or Link Using DOI (Opens New Window)
Copyright © 2007 International Association for the Study of Pain Published by Elsevier B.V.

The impact of chronic pain in children and adolescents: Development and initial validation of a child and parent version of the Pain Experience Questionnaire

Abstract

Psychosocial factors are crucial for understanding and treating chronic pain in adults, but also in children. For children, very few questionnaires for a multidimensional pain assessment exist. In adults, the Multidimensional Pain Inventory (MPI; [Kerns RD, Turk DC, Rudy TE. The West Haven-Yale Multidimensional Pain Inventory (WHYMPI). Pain 1985;23:345–56]) has been widely used to determine patients’ adjustment to chronic pain. Using one section of the MPI as a model, we developed and evaluated the Pain Experience Questionnaire (PEQ) – child and parent version – that assesses the psychosocial impact of chronic pain in children and adolescents. As substantiated by confirmatory factor analysis in a sample of 111 children and adolescents (7–18 years) with chronic pain, the child PEQ entails the subscales pain severity, pain-related interference, affective distress and perceived social support. The parent version contains the subscales severity of the child’s pain, interference and parental affective distress. Child and parent PEQ subscales were internally consistent. Age was unrelated to PEQ subscale scores. Girls and their mothers endorsed significantly greater pain severity, interference and affective distress. Validity analyses yielded a pattern of correlations with measures of depression, trait anxiety, pain activity, child behaviors, pain-related cognitions, and parenting behavior that is consistent with psychometric data of the adult MPI and previous findings on psychosocial aspects of chronic pediatric pain. Significant differences between children depending on patient status (participants in experimental or treatment studies, outpatients, inpatients) suggest external validity of the PEQ. Despite the preliminary nature of the psychometric evaluation, the child and parent PEQ seem promising for a comprehensive assessment of pediatric pain.

Keywords: Pediatric pain; Psychosocial impact; Assessment; Questionnaire; Child report; Parental report

ScienceDirect - Pain : Catastrophizing and perceived partner responses to pain

Pain : Catastrophizing and perceived partner responses to pain:
"Catastrophizing and perceived partner responses to pain
Jennifer L. Boothby, , a, Beverly E. Thornb, Lorraine Y. Overduina and L. Charles Wardc

Received 31 July 2003; Revised 12 February 2004; accepted 23 February 2004 AIB-16214

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between catastrophizing and patient-perceived partner responses to pain behaviors. The Catastrophizing subscale of the Cognitive Coping Strategy Inventory and the West Haven–Yale Multidimensional Pain Inventory were completed by 62 adult chronic pain patients. Consistent with past research, catastrophizing and patient-perceived solicitous partner behaviors were positively correlated with negative pain outcomes. The communal coping theory of catastrophizing suggests that catastrophizing might be undertaken to solicit support and empathy from others. However, catastrophizing was not related to perceived solicitous partner behavior in this study. Rather, catastrophizing was associated with perceived punishing partner responses. Implications are that catastrophizing and perceived solicitous partner behaviors are independently associated with pain and that catastrophizing may not be reinforced by empathy from significant others."