Relationship between the chronic pain grade and measures of physical, social and psychological well-being

Chronic pain is an important cause of suffering, disability and loss of pro ductivity within the community. Chronic pain can also be viewed as a multid imensional phenomenon, and may be associated with increased suffering of a social and psychological nature, as well as physical suffering. In this pap er, the severity of the chronic pain gradings (CPG) is defined in terms of physical, social and psychological well-being, as measured by the SF36 and Glasgow Pain Questionnaire. Although previous work has shown the chronic pa in grade to be a valid measure of chronic pain severity, little is known of the relationship between this and other health measures. A random sample o f 5036 individuals, representative of the general population, stratified fo r age and sex, was drawn. A further sample of 4175 patients was drawn from a list of patients enrolled for repeat prescriptions for analgesic medicati on. A questionnaire survey was carried out, and response rates of 82 and 87 % were achieved, respectively. The comparisons described confirm the widesp read impact of chronic pain on all aspects of health, supporting the multid imensional view. These findings are important in addressing the management of chronic pain patients, and in particular, the social and psychological w ell-being of a patient needs to be addressed in parallel with the physical well-being in order to successfully reduce the suffering associated with ch ronic pain. (C) 1999 International Association for the Study of Pain. Publi shed by Elsevier Science B.V.