Pain, depression, and illness behavior in a Pain Clinic population

Abstract

The relationship between depression, illness behavior and persistent pain was studied in 100 patients referred to the University of Washington Hospital Pain Clinic. The instruments used were the Illness Behavior Questionnaire (IBQ) and the Levine-Pilowsky Depression Questionnaire (LPD). To delineate those aspects of illness behavior characteristic of the Pain Clinic group, their scores were compared to those attained on the IBQ by a Family Medicine Clinic sample. The Pain Clinic group showed greater conviction of disease and somatic preoccupation than the comparison group. Further, they were reluctant to consider their health problems in psychologic terms, and denied current life problems. The Pain Clinic group's performance on the LPD indicated a low degree of depressive affect overall and few patients manifesting a depressive syndrome. The association between IBQ and depression scores suggests that the predominant clinical pattern presented by pain clinic patients is best characterized as a form of "abnormal illness behavior".