Compensation status and symptoms reported by patients with chronic pain

This study examined the initial symptoms of patients with chronic pain who were (n = 70) or were not (n = 52) involved in some aspect of the compensation system--worker's compensation, litigation, or Social Security Disability Insurance. Analyses indicated that compensation patients were discriminable from noncompensation patients (p less than 0.0001). Compensation patients were younger and less likely to be female; they also tended to report fewer surgeries, shorter pain durations, and more vocational and sexual disability. Finally, they perceived their medical conditions to be more severe than had been diagnosed by physicians. The groups did not seem to differ in severity of pain or psychologic distress. These data are consistent with studies indicating that compensation patients are not "symptom magnifiers," although the data do indicate that the life disruptions reported by these patients may be greater than those reported by patients not involved in compensation systems.