Affective and sensory dimensions of back pain

Abstract

Pain words used to communicate suffering were analyzed to identify specific dimensions of back pain. The words were obtained from a group of 131 patients suffering from back pain who described their discomfort on a standardized 87-item pain questionnaire. Words descriptive of back pain were not associated in completely random ways. When patients complained of back pain, their reports fell into 7 distinguishable patterns. The major pattern accounted for 38% of the variance and referred almost entirely to emotional discomfort. The 2nd pattern accounted for 9% of the variance and was a mixed emotional and sensory factor. The remaining 5 patterns accounted for 29% of the variance and constituted an entirely sensory class of actors.