University of Twente Student Theses


Positief affect en chronische pijn : een systematische review

Fleige, M. (2015) Positief affect en chronische pijn : een systematische review.

Abstract:Objective: It is important that the psychology is involved in the issue of chronic pain because there is a relation between chronic pain and a number of psychological problems, like depression, alcohol and drug abuse, and personality disorders. Further, positive affect reduced the symptoms and intensity of pain. The focus of this systematic review is therefore on the extent to which positive affect is related to chronic pain. Method: Two scientific search engines (Scopus, WebofScience) were used to find articles which describe research about the constructs “chronic pain”, including the terms of a number of chronic diseases such as fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis, and “emotional wellbeing”, including the terms positive affect, positive emotions and positive mood. The total amount of articles were 1540. Selection criteria were chosen to determine the relevance of the items for this study. The third construct "daily diary" was created to determine the influence of positive affect on chronic pain within one day and from one day to the next in a natural environment. Respondents needed to complete questionnaires each day with a pen and paper or had to, in e-diaries studies, use technical tools, like a laptop or a Smartphone. During this study were only results and hypotheses discussed that relate to the relationship between positive affect and chronic pain, also the studies used daily diaries. For this reason was afterwards one article completely deleted which results in a total number of six articles that were used to answer the research question: “Which results provide studies with a daily diary or e-diary design, in relation to positive affect and chronic pain?”. Results: The results show that the level of positive affect is an influential factor in the perception of pain intensity. Positive affect, as an independent variable, influences pain. For example leads a higher degree of positive affect directly to less pain. Similarly, positive affect indirectly influences pain because a high level of positive affect has an inhibitory effect on "pain catastrophizing". Furthermore, the level of positive affect depends on variables such as coping strategies, psychological resilience, age and interpersonal events. Conclusion: Psychological factors have a crucial effect on the perception of the intensity of pain and affect wellbeing.
Item Type:Essay (Bachelor)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:77 psychology
Programme:Psychology BSc (56604)
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