CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 93Musculoskeletal pain and rehabilitationAttachment and Relationship DynamicsPain Mechanisms and Treatments

Chronic pain couples: perceived marital interactions and pain behaviours

Newton-John, Toby R., de C Williams, Amanda C·2006·Pain
DOI 10.1016/j.pain.2006.02.009
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Patient adjustment to chronic pain is well known to be influenced by the spouse and his or her response to patient expressions of pain. However, these responses do not occur in a vacuum, and the aim of the present study was to investigate patient-spouse interactions in chronic pain in detail. Ninety-five patient-spouse dyads completed questionnaires relating to mood, marital satisfaction and communication, and 80 couples also took part in semi-structured interviews. Data were analysed using quantitative and qualitative methods. Results showed that spouses of chronic pain patients reported engaging in a far wider repertoire of responses to pain behaviours than has been recognised to date. New response categories of 'hostile-solicitous' and 'observe only' were identified. Patients generally interpreted solicitous responses less favourably than spouse responses which encouraged task persistence. Male spouses identified fewer pain-related situations than female spouses but were more likely to report responding solicitously to patient pain behaviours. Marital satisfaction was significantly higher in patients who rated themselves as talking more frequently about their pain. Spouse perceived frequency of pain talk was not related to spouse marital satisfaction. There were no gender differences in marital satisfaction. The results of this study challenge some of the assumptions that have been held regarding chronic pain patient-spouse interactions.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.pain.2006.02.009

Cites

53 of 53 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Solicitous spouse responses measured by the Multidimensional Pain Inventory are positively related to pain severity and pain behaviors.

    “Solicitous spouse responses as assessed by the Multidimensional Pain Inventory are also positively related to pain severity and pain behaviors 8.”

    From Empathic and nonempathic interaction in chronic pain couples. (2008) · cites this paper as [8]

  • The Multidimensional Pain Inventory has good construct and discriminant validity, internal consistency, and test-retest reliability.

    “The MPI has been shown to have good construct and discriminant validity, internal consistency, and test-retest reliability (8, 21).”

    From Empathic and nonempathic interaction in chronic pain couples. (2008) · cites this paper as [8]

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Newton-John, T. R., & de C Williams, A. C.
Corresponding author
Newton-John, Toby R.
ORCID
Newton-John, Toby R.
Venue
Pain
Publisher
Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health)
Published
2006-07
Volume
123
Issue
1
Pages
53-63
ISSN
0304-3959 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.pain.2006.02.009
OpenAlex
W1986881634
Cited by
92
References
51
Citations by year
2026: 3 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 7 · 2012: 7
FWCI
1.66
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Pain (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Pharmacology › Musculoskeletal pain and rehabilitation
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Attachment and Relationship Dynamics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Pain Mechanisms and Treatments
Keywords
chronic pain, marital satisfaction, pain communication, pain behavior, couples, gender differences, task persistence
MeSH terms
Adaptation, Psychological, Adult, Affect, Aged, Anger, Attitude to Health, Chronic Disease, Communication, Conditioning, Operant, Depression, Female, Helping Behavior, Humans, Interpersonal Relations, Interviews as Topic, Male, Marriage, Middle Aged, Models, Psychological, Pain, Pain Measurement, Personal Satisfaction, Problem Solving, Surveys and Questionnaires, Reinforcement, Psychology, Spouses

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review