Self-efficacy for arthritis pain: relationship to perception of thermal laboratory pain stimuli.

Journal Article (Journal Article)

OBJECTIVE: To examine how self-efficacy for arthritis pain relates to the perception of controlled laboratory pain stimuli. METHODS: Forty patients with osteoarthritis completed self-report measures of self-efficacy for arthritis pain. They then participated in a single experimental session in which measures of thermal pain threshold and tolerance were collected, as well as measures of the perceived intensity and unpleasantness of a range of thermal pain stimuli. RESULTS: Correlational analyses revealed that patients reporting high self-efficacy for arthritis pain rated the thermal pain stimuli as less unpleasant than those reporting low self-efficacy. When subjects scoring very high and very low in self-efficacy were compared, it was found that subjects scoring high on self-efficacy for arthritis pain had significantly higher pain thresholds and pain tolerance than those scoring low on self-efficacy. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that self-efficacy for arthritis pain is related to judgments of thermal pain stimuli. Implications for the understanding of arthritis pain and for future laboratory research are discussed.

Full Text

Duke Authors

Cited Authors

  • Keefe, FJ; Lefebvre, JC; Maixner, W; Salley, AN; Caldwell, DS

Published Date

  • June 1997

Published In

Volume / Issue

  • 10 / 3

Start / End Page

  • 177 - 184

PubMed ID

  • 9335629

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

  • 0893-7524

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1002/art.1790100305

Language

  • eng

Conference Location

  • United States