The investigation of relationship of childhood traumas and perceived social support with chronic pain

Objective: In this research it is aimed to investigate the relationship of childhood traumas and perceived social support with chronic pain. Methods: 52 individuals with chronic pain from community health center (clinical pain group), 52 individuals reporting pain at least for 6 months outside the clinical settings (non clinical pain group) and a pain-free control group (n=52) were included in this cross-sectional study. To test the research questions, Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS), Somatosensory Amplification Scale (SAS) were applied to all groups of the participants. Additionally, Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), McGill Short Form Pain Questionnaire (SF-MPQ-Affect subscale) were used to measure experiences of individuals with pain. To compare the groups Chi Square test and ANOVA were conducted by using SPSS v.20. To test the relationships among variables Linear Regression, Pearson/Spearman correlation coefficient analyses were performed. Moderation model was tested with PROCESS Macro, model-1 (by Andrew F. Hayes). Results: There were significant differences between non clinical pain group and healthy control group in terms of prevalence of self reported history of emotional abuse and at least one type of traumatic experience; but the groups did not significantly differ regarding prevalence of other types of trauma (physical abuse, sexual abuse, physical neglect and emotional neglect). The level of perceived social support from family was significantly lower in both pain groups than healthy control group. Additionally, severity of childhood traumas was found to be positively associated with somatosensory amplification, sensory and affective dimensions of pain and was negatively correlated with the age at onset of the pain. Finally, perceived social support from family moderated the relationship between childhood traumas and somatosensory amplification. Conclusion: Findings correspond with the existing literature of pain and childhood trauma to a large extent. And this research highlights the relationships between pain and trauma regardless of the type of pain and emphasizes the importance of psychosocial factors in pain experiences. Further research should investigate the nature of the relationship.