Authors: Scherder E.J.A.¹; Smit R.²; Vuijk P.J.²; Bouma A.³; Sergeant J.A.²

Source: Aging and Mental Health, Volume 6, Number 3, 1 August 2002 , pp. 304-312(9)

Publisher: Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

Abstract:

The Acute versus Chronic Pain Questionnaire (ACPQ) was applied to older people. Two groups emerged from an analysis of which an item of each pair (an acute and a chronic affective item) was considered to cause the most suffering. One group of subjects comprised those who expected to suffer more from one or more acute pain items (high-ACPQ group, n = 35). A second group emerged for whom none of the acute items was considered to be a burden (low-ACPQ group, n = 33). It was hypothesized that, compared to the low-ACPQ group, the subjects with high-ACPQ scores selected acute ACPQ-items due to a decline in the experience of chronic affective pain. This hypothesis predicted lower scores on the chronic ACPQ-items and lower scores on scales evaluating the subjects' own chronic affective pain. The results showed that, irrespective of the group, the chronic ACPQ-items were considered to produce the most burdens. However, compared with the low-ACPQ group, the high-ACPQ group reported experiencing significantly more pain from the acute ACPQ-items. Moreover, the latter group indicated suffering less pain from their own chronic pain conditions. The present findings suggest that the selection of one or more acute items of the ACPQ (high-ACPQ group) may point to an alteration in subjects' actual pain experience.

Document Type: Research article

Affiliations: 1: Department of Clinical Neuropsychology, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands 2: Department of Clinical Neuropsychology, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam 3: Department of Neuropsychology, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

Publication date: 2002-08-01

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