Central pain due to stroke: cognitive representation and coping according to gender.
OBJECTIVE
To identify and compare perceptions of pain and how it is faced between men and women with central post-stroke pain.


METHODS
The participants were 25 men and 25 women of minimum age 30 years-old and minimum schooling level of four years, presenting central post-stroke pain for at least three months. The instruments used were: Mini-Mental State Examination; structured interview for the Brief Psychiatric Scale; Survey of Sociodemographic and Clinical Data; Visual Analogue Scale (VAS); Ways of Coping with Problems Scale (WCPS) in Scale; Revised Illness Perception Questionnaire (IPQ-R); and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI).


RESULTS
A significantly greater number of women used the coping strategy "Turn to spiritual and religious activities" in WCPS. They associated their emotional state with the cause of pain in IPQ-R. "Distraction of attention" was the strategy most used by the subjects.


CONCLUSIONS
Women used spiritual and religious activities more as a coping strategy and perceived their emotional state as the cause of pain.
Neurology Department, University of São Paulo Medical School, Brazil. nogueiramariana@yahoo.com.br
Mariana
M
Nogueira
Manoel Jacobsen
MJ
Teixeira
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D059226:Nociceptive Pain / Q000209:etiology* / Q000523:psychology; D010147:Pain Measurement; D012069:Religion and Psychology; D012737:Sex Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D020521:Stroke / Q000150:complications* / Q000503:physiopathology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors