PAIN-RELATED ANXIETY PREDICTS NONSPECIFIC PHYSICAL COMPLAINTS IN PERSONS WITH CHRONIC PAIN

Persons with chronic pain often report a range of physical symptoms be yond their primary pain complaint itself We predicted that non-specifi c physical symptom complaints would correlate more strongly with pain- related distress than with general measures of distress, and that they would contribute directly to disability. Results from 210 adults with chronic pain showed that collateral physical complaints are common in persons with chronic pain. Correlational analyses showed that greater reporting of physical complaints was associated with reports of highe r pain severity; higher levels of depression, more cognitive, escape/a voidance, fearful appraisal, and physiological symptoms of pain-relate d anxiety and more physical and psychosocial disability. Regression an alyses showed that, with pain-related anxiety variables entered either before or after depression, physiological symptoms of pain-related an xiety significantly predicted physical complaints. In comparison with cognitive and somatic depression symptoms physiological symptoms of pa in-related anxiety were the stronger predictor. (C) 1998 Elsevier Scie nce Ltd. All rights reserved.