A POPULATION-BASED STUDY OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SEXUAL ABUSE ANDBACK PAIN - ESTABLISHING A LINK

The aim of the present study was to investigate the prevalence of phys ical and sexual abuse in the general population as well as to investig ate the link between abuse and pain. From a pool of randomly selected people 35-45-years-old, three groups were selected based on their repo rts of their musculoskeletal pain. These were the No Pain Group (n = 4 49), the Mild Pain Group (n = 229), and the Pronounced Pain Group (n = 271). A group of 142 consecutive patients with chronic musculoskeleta l pain was used as a clinical reference group. A standardized question naire was employed to determine self-reported physical and sexual abus e. Sexual abuse was more frequently reported than physical abuse and w omen tended to report more sexual abuse than did men. For women the pr evalence of physical abuse ranged from 2% in the No Pain Group to 8% i n the Pronounced Pain Group. The total amount of self-reported sexual abuse ranged from 23% in the No Pain Group to 46% in the Pronounced Pa in Group. The prevalence of self-reported abuse for the Patient Group differed Little from the Pronounced Pain Group and was 35%. For female s only, there was a clear link between self-reported abuse and pain as physical abuse increased the risk of pronounced pain by five-fold and sexual abuse increased this risk by four-fold. These data provide the prevalence of self-reported abuse in a 'normal' population base and m oreover demonstrate an important link between self-reported abuse and pain for women. The findings show that self-reported abuse may be an i mportant predictor for chronic pain and provide support for the idea t hat abuse may indirectly or directly be implicated in the chronificati on of pain. (C) 1997 International Association for the Study of Pain. Published by Elsevier Science B.V.