Presented at the 2012 AAPM Annual Meeting « Back

Pain Site, Pain Intensity, and Functioning in Patients with Chronic Pain

Gabriel Tan, PhD ABPP, psygt@nus.edu.sg¹, Mark P. Jensen, PhD², James J. Mahoney, MA³, Donna L. Smith, Med⁴, Wright Williams, PhD ABPP⁴, Tam K. Dao, PhD⁵, (1) National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore, (2) University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, (3) BCM, Houston, Texas, (4) Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center, Houston, Texas, (5) University of Houston, Houston, Texas

Abstract Introduction/Statement of Problem: Preliminary research indicates that pain location and pain extent (i.e., the number of body areas with pain) may contribute to disability over and above the effects of pain intensity. Methods: We accessed archival data set from a pain management program at the Houston VA Medical Center to examine the associations between pain locations, pain extent, pain intensity, and measures of patient functioning. Results: Controlling for pain intensity, patients with arm or hand pain reported significantly more pain interference and depression than those who reported pain in other locations. Patients with back pain reported more pain interference than those who did not have back pain. Although pain interference remained statistically significant for arms/hands pain when depression was controlled, the effect of arms/hands pain on depression was vitiated when interference was controlled. Participants with more pain extent (i.e., who endorsed 3 or more pain sites) also reported more interference and depression and these effects remained significant even when pain intensity and depression were controlled. Conclusion: The findings confirm the importance of both pain site and pain extent as predictors of patient functioning over and above pain intensity. Pain in the arms/hands and back appear to be most disabling. The findings support the inclusion of measures of pain site and extent as a part of a thorough evaluation, and also support the potential importance of developing interventions for decreasing the impact of arm and hand pain on functioning.

Funding: None