[Expression of pain in rheumatic disease. Exploratory study]

An investigation done in 34 rheumatology departments on 259 patients in order to analyse their perception of pain and its repercussions on daily living. The main three diseases justifying hospitalization are: rheumatoid arthritis, lumbosciatica and bone neoplasia. In these patients, pain occurs daily in 75 p. cent of them and continuous in 32 p. cent; the intensity of the pain varies according to the time. There are repercussions on work (63 p. cent), walking (81 p. cent), but also on leisure (74 p. cent), friendly interelations (42 p. cent) and disposition which is disturbed in 62 p. cent of patients. Behavioral analysis in the presence of pain brings up differences depending on the patients: the elder the patient, the least they are able to respond to the handicap caused by pain. Analysis of the pain vocabulary suggest that if the terms expressing the experience of the patient are different according to the diseases, the usual description of painful phenomena are common to patients and the diseases in question.