Profiling Cronic Pain Based on Cognitive, Emotional, and Neuropsychological Indicators

Objective: Pain is a phenomenon every person experiences during life, and its prevalence in societies is reportedly 13-47%. Psychological approaches focus on the two categories of pain-injury factors and pain-coping skills. Considering the importance of these factors, this study aimed to investigate the chronic pain based on psychological indicators, cognitive and emotional indicators. Methods and Materials: A structural equation correlation design was employed to achieve the current survey’s aim. Two hundred Patients with chronic muscular and skeletal pains referred to the pain clinic of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences between 2022 and 2023 were recruited through available sampling. Ambiguous scenarios test created by Barna and Wisconsin Card Sorting (Grant & Berg, 1948) Test were used to measure interpretation bias and abstract behavior, respectively. The Stroop color-word test measured selective attention and cognitive flexibility (Stroop, 1935). Assessing emotional, cognitive, and behavioral reactions to ambiguous situations and Anxiety was performed using the Uncertainty Intolerance Scale (UIS) designed by Friston and the Anxiety Susceptibility Scale. Data was analyzed using SPSS (v.16.0) and SmartPLS.3.3.2 software. Findings: The path of predicting chronic pain by five indicators was significant in all dimensions. It was found that congruent (P<0.01) and incongruent reactions (P<0.01) and ambiguous scenarios (P<0.01) among cognitive indicators, anxiety sensitivity (P<0.01), and completion of classes (P<0.01) among the neurological indicators, intolerance of uncertainty (P 0.01) among the emotional indicators and unstable behavior tendencies (P<0.01) and impulsive behavior tendencies (P<0.01) among the behavioral indicators significantly predicted chronic pain. Conclusion: Emotional factors are more closely correlated to chronic pain than cognitive factors. Also, it can be said that the structure of anxiety sensitivity has a significant association with chronic pain disorders, and clinicians should pay attention to this emotional structure and its multifaceted effects in working with chronic pain patients.