Self-efficacy for arthritis pain: relationship to perception of thermal laboratory pain stimuli

• Published in: Arthritis care and research Vol. 10; no. 3; p. 177
• Main Authors: Keefe, F J, Lefebvre, J C, Maixner, W, Salley, Jr, A N, Caldwell, D S
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 01-06-1997
• Subjects: Attitude to Health; Female; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Osteoarthritis - complications; Pain - etiology; Pain - psychology; Pain Measurement; Self Care
• ISSN: 0893-7524
• DOI: 10.1002/art.1790100305

To examine how self-efficacy for arthritis pain relates to the perception of controlled laboratory pain stimuli.
Forty patients with osteoarthritis completed self-report measures of self-efficacy for arthritis pain. They then participated in a single experimental session in which measures of thermal pain threshold and tolerance were collected, as well as measures of the perceived intensity and unpleasantness of a range of thermal pain stimuli.
Correlational analyses revealed that patients reporting high self-efficacy for arthritis pain rated the thermal pain stimuli as less unpleasant than those reporting low self-efficacy. When subjects scoring very high and very low in self-efficacy were compared, it was found that subjects scoring high on self-efficacy for arthritis pain had significantly higher pain thresholds and pain tolerance than those scoring low on self-efficacy.
These results indicate that self-efficacy for arthritis pain is related to judgments of thermal pain stimuli. Implications for the understanding of arthritis pain and for future laboratory research are discussed.