PERSONALITY-DISORDERS AND RESPONSE TO OUTPATIENT TREATMENT OF CHRONICPAIN

As part of a comprehensive interdisciplinary evaluation conducted prio r to participation in an outpatient chronic pain treatment program, th e psychological status of 101 persons was assessed. The majority of pa rticipants was found to have a form of personality disorder, determine d by conservative cutoff scores applied to their Millon Clinical Mulri axial Inventory (MCMI) profiles. DSM-III-R Cluster C disorders (i.e., Avoidant, Dependent, Obsessive-Compulsive, and Passive-Aggressive) wer e overrepresented in this sample. Subsequent analyses revealed that pe rsonality disorders were related to higher levels of self-reported dis tress and pain at both the beginning and the end of outpatient treatme nt Differential responses to treatment were observed on self-report me asures; however, few relations were found between personality disorder and physical therapist ratings of impairment and improvement. Implica tions for the assessment of personality disorders in outpatient pain t reatment programs are discussed and appropriate intervention strategie s are considered.