Central pain due to stroke: cognitive representation and coping according to gender.

OBJECTIVE To identify and compare perceptions of pain and how it is faced between men and women with central post-stroke pain. METHODS The participants were 25 men and 25 women of minimum age 30 years-old and minimum schooling level of four years, presenting central post-stroke pain for at least three months. The instruments used were: Mini-Mental State Examination; structured interview for the Brief Psychiatric Scale; Survey of Sociodemographic and Clinical Data; Visual Analogue Scale (VAS); Ways of Coping with Problems Scale (WCPS) in Scale; Revised Illness Perception Questionnaire (IPQ-R); and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). RESULTS A significantly greater number of women used the coping strategy "Turn to spiritual and religious activities" in WCPS. They associated their emotional state with the cause of pain in IPQ-R. "Distraction of attention" was the strategy most used by the subjects. CONCLUSION Women used spiritual and religious activities more as a coping strategy and perceived their emotional state as the cause of pain.