A comparison of chronic pain patients and controls on traumatic events in childhood

The purpose was to examine the incidence of traumatic events in childhood, such as sexual and physical abuse, in a chronic pain group and a control group of hospital employees without chronic pain.

Ninety two patients with chronic pain, age range 20-62, were consecutively recruited from the outpatient clinics of a rehabilitation hospital and a general hospital. Ninety eight hospital employees, age range 20-62, were consecutively recruited from the employee health office of a rehabilitation hospital. All participants responded to nine questions related to sexual, physical and verbal abuse in childhood and completed the Childhood Traumatic Events Scale. A logistic regression with age, gender, sexual, physical, and verbal abuse, death of a family member, childhood illness, major upheaval before age 17, as independent variables were used to predict membership in the pain group contrasted with the control group.

Child abuse was reported in the childhood history by 54.4% of the chronic pain group, compared with 21.4% of the control group. A logistic regression showed that after adjusting for gender and age, sexual and verbal abuse were statistically significant predictors of being a member of the pain group. Odds ratios were sexual abuse: 2.67, p < 0.05, CI 1.00-7.14. Verbal abuse: 4.39, p < 0.001, CI 1.93-9.97. A logistic regression was modelled to predict child abuse when gender was taken into account. The results of the logistic regression showed that pain was a significant predictor for sexual abuse after adjusting for gender and age: odds ratio 4.37, p < 0.001, CI 1.80-10.60. Gender was not a statistically significant predictor for sexual abuse, after adjusting for pain and age: odds ratio 2.92, p < 0.072, CI 0.91-9.42.

A history of physical, sexual and verbal abuse is more likely to occur in a chronic pain group than in a control group of hospital employees. Although child abuse is reported to be as high as 25% in the general American population, the statistics for chronic pain patients are twice as high as in the general population. The mechanisms for abuse include age, gender, and early family environment.