PSYCHOLOGICAL STRUCTURE OF CHRONIC PAIN

The psychological mechanism of chronic pain involves ''...a series of mental events that occur between the presentation of a noxious stimulu s and the behavioral response'' (Jerome, 1993). We suppose seven conse cutive subsystems of exposition, transmission and transformation of no ciceptive information: Perceptual Field; Nociceptive Processes, Pain F eeling, Cognitive Processing, Affective-Motivation Processes, Response s and Behavior, and Responses and Behavior of Others (Knotek, in press ; Knotek, Knotkova, in press). N = 67 rheumatic inpatients (M = 49.38, SD = 7.59 years) suffering from pain minimally for one year, were inv estigated by Paintester (radiant heat stimulator), visual analogue sca les for measurement of Pain Intensity, Unpleasantness of Pain, and Suf fering, and questionnaires MPQ SF, PBAPI, STAI, STAXI, BDI SF, and Act ivity 5. Six factors, corresponding with Nociceptive Processes (two fa ctors), Pain Feeling, Cognitive Processing, Affective-Motivation Proce sses, and Responses and Behavior were extracted by exploratory factor analysis (OBLIMIN). Factors Pain Feeling, Affective-Motivation Process es, and Responses and Behavior explain most of the information of the factor matrix. The hierarchic hypothesis with the G factor (loading mo stly affective and social-behavior variables), Sl (Pain and Affective- Motivation Processes) subdivided on S11 (Pain Feeling) and S12 (Affect ive-Motivation Processes), and other S factors, identical with factors of exploratory analysis, were confirmed by the confirmatory factor an alysis (orthogonal solution, GEFA).