Relationship between back pain and personality: Psychologic vulnerability as risk factor for the development of chronic back pain

Abstract

One hundred and forty-five acute back-pain patients were tested for the presence of personality traits connected with psychologic vulnerability, traits often found among chronic back-pain patients. All patients in the experimental group and the healthy individuals in the control group were tested with the Patient Pain Drawing test (PPD) and with the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) on the scales hypochondriasis (Hs), depression (D), and hysteria (Hy). The patient group differed significantly from the control group on average Hs, D, and Hy scores and on the quantified PPD (measuring somatization pro-neness). The patients with the highest PPD scores had the highest values on MMPI (Hs, D, Hy), and the patients with low scores on the PPD-indicating low tendency to somatize -had MMPI values that did not differ significantly from those of the healthy controls. The study indicates that personality may influence the individual's tendency to somatize and express psychic and psychosocial problems as somatic pain.