• M Sobol-Kwapinska, W Plotek, P Bąbel, M Cybulski, A Kluzik, J Krystianc, and M Mandecki.
• Department of Personality Psychology, The Catholic University of Lublin, Poland.
• Eur J Pain. 2017 Apr 1; 21 (4): 635-644.

BackgroundThe aim of this study was to predict acute postsurgical pain and coping with pain following surgery based on preoperative time perspectives. Time perspective is a basic dimension of psychological time. It is a tendency to focus on a particular time area: the past, the present and the future.MethodSeventy-six patients completed measures of time perspective and pain 24 h before abdominal surgery. During the 3 days after surgery, measures of pain and coping with pain were completed.ResultsWe performed hierarchical regression analyses to identify predictors of acute postsurgical pain and how patients cope with it. These analyses suggested that a preoperative past-negative time perspective can be a predictor of postoperative pain level and catastrophizing after surgery.ConclusionThe findings of our study indicate the importance of time perspective, especially the past perspective, in dealing with postoperative pain.SignificanceOur research indicates that a preoperative past-negative time perspective is a significant predictor of acute postsurgical pain intensity and the strongest predictor of pain catastrophizing.© 2016 European Pain Federation - EFIC®.

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