Journal of clinical psychology in medical settings
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J Clin Psychol Med Settings · Sep 2014
Illness and treatment perceptions of patients with chronic low back pain: characteristics and relation to individual, disease and interaction variables.
The significance of various cognitive and psychosocial factors in the development, progression and persistence of chronic low back pain (CLBP) is well demonstrated. However, only a few studies have addressed CLBP patients' cognitive representations or beliefs about their disease and its treatment. The present study aimed to: (1) describe the illness and treatment beliefs of patients with CLBP, e.g., expected timeline, controllability or treatment related concerns; and (2) explore the relation of these illness and treatment beliefs to individual-, disease- and interaction-related variables. ⋯ The results demonstrated large inter-individual variability in the illness and treatment perceptions among patients with CLBP and pointed to several associations with disease-related variables, patients' personal characteristics and interaction experiences. The variables most strongly related to individuals' perceptions were those reflecting disease severity and individual disease experience. Further research is needed on CLBP patients' illness and treatment perceptions, and these personal disease experiences should be considered when designing new treatment approaches.