Pain and disability in families of chronic noncancer pain patients.
The authors conducted a cross-sectional study to determine the prevalence of chronic noncancer pain or disability in first-degree relatives of patients who had sustained a physically traumatic injury with resultant chronic pain. A control group of general internal medicine patients was also interviewed about existence in their family of chronic pain or of disability, either pain-related or related to nonpainful chronic illness. None of the control patients were themselves experiencing acute or chronic pain. There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups in the prevalence of chronic pain or disability in family members. The study's findings suggest that chronic noncancer pain patients should not be viewed as a uniform group with regard to learned behaviors and/or familial aggregation.
Rodgers
C
C
Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, PA 19107-5004, USA.
Levin
L
L
Robeson
M
M
Kunkel
E J
EJ
D000328:Adult; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D006233:Persons with Disabilities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010146:Pain / Q000453:epidemiology*; D018710:Pain Clinics; D015995:Prevalence; D012189:Retrospective Studies