Evaluating the relationship between personality traits, coping strategies and pain catastrophizing in patients with chronic pain

The study aimed at investigating the relationship between personality traits, coping strategies and pain catastrophizing in patients with chronic pain. The study adopted a descriptive-correlational approach as its methodology. The population of the study consisted of patients with chronic pain who referred to a pain clinic centerof Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences among whom 100 personswere randomly selected. The data gathering tools included NEO Personality Inventory with 60 questions, Rosenstiel and Keefe’s 42-item questionnaire on coping strategies as well as a Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS) with 13 questions developed by Sullivan, Bishop and Pivik the reliabilitiesof which wereestimated through Cronbach's alpha which were equal to 0/79,0/86 and 0/66, respectively. The Pearson correlation coefficient and regression analysis were used for data analysis.The results showed that there was a relationship between features such as extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, openness and pain catastrophizing in patients with chronic pain. There were also some relations between cognitive and behavioral coping strategies and pain catastrophizingin such patients (patients with chronic pain). The share of each of these components of personality traits and coping strategies on predicting the pain catastrophizing in patients with chronic pain was different. And the variable of extraversion (98%) and behavioral strategies (39%) were the highest in predicting the pain catastrophizing in patients with chronic pain.