Psychological Factors in the Assessment of Disability among Patients with Chronic Pain

A number of self report, interview, and behavioral measures have been developed relevant to disability assessment. This paper reviews those measures and the psychological factors that have been studied in relation to those measures. In order to facilitate a systematic review of this research, the research is organized along lines suggested by the Glasgow Illness Model: (1) research associated with physical findings is reviewed first; (2) personality, emotional, and cognitive factors are examined as they relate to disability; (3) relations between illness behaviors and disability are studied; (4) social factors relevant to the sick role (compensation status, family dynamics) are reviewed. Patterns among the findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.