Partner responses to patient pain and well behaviors and their relationship to patient pain behavior, functioning, and depression

• Published in: Pain (Amsterdam) Vol. 152; no. 1; pp. 82 - 88
• Main Authors: Raichle, Katherine A., Romano, Joan M., Jensen, Mark P.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Philadelphia, PA Elsevier B.V 01-01-2011; Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Inc; Elsevier
• Subjects: Adult; Biological and medical sciences; Biopsychosocial model of pain; Chronic pain; Depression - etiology; Female; Follow-Up Studies; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Illness and personality; Illness, stress and coping; Interpersonal Relations; Male; Marital satisfaction; Middle Aged; Pain - complications; Pain - epidemiology; Pain - psychology; Pain and well behaviors; Pain Measurement; Pain-related dysfunction; Predictive Value of Tests; Psychology and medicine; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Reproducibility of Results; Severity of Illness Index; Sickness Impact Profile; Somesthesis and somesthetic pathways (proprioception, exteroception, nociception); interoception; electrolocation. Sensory receptors; Spouse responses; Spouses - psychology; Vertebrates: nervous system and sense organs; Spouse responses; Pain-related dysfunction; Biopsychosocial model of pain; Marital satisfaction; Pain and well behaviors; Chronic pain; Human; Concurrent; Satisfaction; Biopsychosocial model; Validity; Pain; Spouse; Dysfunction; Behavior; Reliability
• ISSN: 0304-3959; 1872-6623
• DOI: 10.1016/j.pain.2010.09.015

The goals of the current study were to examine the associations between patient-reported spouse responses to pain and well behaviors as assessed by the Spouse Response Inventory (SRI) [22] and (1) patient-reported pain behavior, (2) depression, and (3) physical dysfunction, independent of patient demographics and pain severity. Moreover, we sought to examine the potential moderating influence of marital satisfaction on these relationships. We also evaluated the construct and concurrent validity and internal reliability of the SRI. The findings indicate that encouragement of well behaviors is related to lower levels of patient-reported pain behaviors, while negative responses to well behavior is related to greater patient physical dysfunction. Likewise, higher levels of negative responses to pain behaviors, as well as higher levels of solicitous responses to pain behaviors are generally related to poorer patient functioning. Furthermore, marital satisfaction did not moderate the relationship between any SRI subscales and patient-reported pain behaviors. In summary, our results support the internal reliability and validity of the SRI scales as measures of spousal responses to both pain and well behaviors. The current study also supports the importance of examining the potential impact of responses to both well and pain behaviors. Further research is needed to examine the potential impact of other contextual variables and marital satisfaction on the relationship of spouse responses to both well and pain behaviors.