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Pre-injury emotional trauma and chronic back pain. An unexpected finding
J A Blair1, R S Blair, P Rueckert
1Neurology Associates, Fort Worth, Texas.
Study Design:
A retrospective study investigated pre-injury emotional trauma in out-of-work, blue collar patients with chronic back pain (N = 27) who participated in a 30-hour workshop in which a wide range of cognitive skills was taught to help patients with rehabilitation and return them to work.
Objectives:
This study identified categories of pre-injury emotional trauma, calculated summary statistics, and performed category comparisons.
Methods:
The categories of abandonment, emotional abuse, physical abuse, and sexual abuse emerged from the data. Frequencies and percentages in each category were calculated. Chi-square tests compared the differences in emotional trauma and gender.
Results:
Statistically more patients reported abandonment and emotional abuse than physical and sexual abuse. There were no differences in trauma rates by gender. The results of the study revealed a high rate of pre-injury emotional trauma in patients with chronic back pain.
Conclusion:
Including pre-injury emotional trauma in psychologic evaluations of patients with chronic back pain and high psychologic test scores is recommended.