title: Role of pain personification in pain-related depression: an object relations perspective.
abstract: Chronic pain may be internalized and integrated into the sufferer's object-relations, thereby influencing sufferer's depression. To examine this, fifty-five women suffering from chronic pain were assessed as to their pain-personification, pain intensity, depression, anxiety, and pain related distress. The assessment protocol included an innovative self-report measure, the Pain Personification Questionnaire (PPQ), measuring pain as an internal "bad" object. Controlling for level of pain intensity, we found that the PPQ predicts depression, illness intrusiveness, and pain-related distress, but not anxiety. These findings encourage an object-relations approach to the understanding and treatment of depression in chronic illness.
authors.affiliation: Stress & Personality Lab, Department of Psychology at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel. e.schattner@gmail.com
authors.forename: Emanuel
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Schattner
authors.forename: Golan
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Shahar
mesh_terms: D001007:Anxiety; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003863:Depression / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008875:Middle Aged; D009769:Object Attachment; D010146:Pain / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology