Emotionen bei chronifiziertem Schmerz: Veränderungen im Verlauf einer tagesklinischen interdisziplinären multimodalen Schmerztherapie

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

Abstract

Research question: The present study examined the extent to which emotional experience and emotional competence (EC) change in people with chronic pain during interdisciplinary multimodal pain treatment (IMPT). Methods: The study included N = 184 adult German-speaking individuals with non-cancer-related chronic pain. They completed a day clinic IMPT. The frequency of specific emotions (anger, etc.) and EC was assessed at three measurement time points using the Questionnaire for Emotion-Specific Self-Assessment of Emotional Competencies (ERSQ-ES) and the Emotional Competency Questionnaire (ECQ). The course results were analyzed descriptively, inferentially, and using linear regression. Results: Positive emotions were experienced more frequently (effect size r = 0.40; p < 0.001) and negative emotions less frequently (r = 0.39, p < 0.001) at end of therapy. The experience of anger decreased particularly strongly (r = 0.52; p < 0.001). Self-assessed EC did not change during the IMPT (χ 2ECQ_total (2) = 0.09; p = 0.956). EC largely explained the variance in the frequency experience of positive (R 2 = 0.468) and negative emotions (R 2 = 0.390). Discussion: Improvements in patient-reported frequencies of positive and negative emotions during IMPT were demonstrated. Further research should validate these results using a control group. Even though no explicit increase in competence was perceivable for the studied subjects, EC had a high predictive value for emotion frequency. Future therapy designs and evaluations should focus more on changes of emotional experience.

Translated title of the contribution
Emotions in chronic pain
Changes in the course of day clinic interdisciplinary multimodal pain therapy

Details

Original languageGerman
Pages (from-to)400-408
Number of pages9
JournalSchmerz
Volume38 (2024)
Issue number6
Publication statusPublished - 29 Aug 2024
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

PubMed 37644244

Keywords

Sustainable Development Goals

Keywords

  • Emotional competence, Emotional experience, Follow-up assessment, Interdisciplinary multimodal pain therapy, Primary chronic pain