CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 239Musculoskeletal pain and rehabilitationPain Management and TreatmentPediatric Pain Management Techniques

Psychological functioning of people living with chronic pain: a meta-analytic review

Burke, Anne L. J., Mathias, Jane L., Denson, Linley A.·2015·British Journal of Clinical Psychology
DOI 10.1111/bjc.12078
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Objectives Chronic pain (CP; >3 months) is a common condition that is associated with significant psychological problems. Many people with CP do not fit into discrete diagnostic categories, limiting the applicability of research that is specific to a particular pain diagnosis. This meta-analysis synthesized the large extant literature from a general CP, rather than diagnosis-specific, perspective to systematically identify and compare the psychological problems most commonly associated with CP. Methods Four databases were searched from inception to December 2013 (PsychINFO, The Cochrane Library, Scopus, and PubMed) for studies comparing the psychological functioning of adults with CP to healthy controls. Data from 110 studies were meta-analysed and Cohen's d effect sizes calculated. Results The CP group reported experiencing significant problems in a range of psychological domains (depression, anxiety, somatization, anger/hostility, self-efficacy, self-esteem and general emotional functioning), with the largest effects observed for pain anxiety/concern and somatization; followed by anxiety and self-efficacy; and then depression, anger/hostility, self-esteem and general emotional functioning. Conclusions This study demonstrates, for the first time, that individuals with CP are more likely to experience physically focussed psychological problems than other psychological problems and that, unlike self-efficacy, fear of pain is intrinsically tied to the CP experience. This challe…

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1111/bjc.12078

Cites

46 of 46 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?

  • Subjective beliefs of low self-efficacy can generalize beyond the specific situation and might result in a domain-unspecific vulnerability.

    “This draws on previous empirical findings that subjective beliefs of low self-efficacy can generalize beyond the specific situation (Bandura, 1977; Burke et al., 2015) and might result in a domain-unspecific vulnerability”

    From Allostatic Self-efficacy: A Metacognitive Theory of Dyshomeostasis-Induced Fatigue and Depression (2016) · cites this paper as Burke et al., 2015

  • Chronic pain commonly co-occurs with anxiety and depression.

    “On the other hand, CP commonly co-occurs with anxiety and depression,2-4 which adds more complications to the health status of the patients.”

    From Psychological interventions for depression and anxiety: a systematic review and meta-analysis of Iranian chronic pain trials. (2020) · cites this paper as [3]

  • Depression, anxiety, and emotional distress contribute strongly, often more strongly than pain intensity, to long-term persistent pain outcomes including physical disability, work disability, healthcare costs, mortality, and suicide.

    “there is a wealth of evidence that symptoms of depression, anxiety, and emotional distress contribute strongly (more strongly than pain intensity, in many studies) to key long-term outcomes of persistent pain such as physical disability 35, 43–46, work disability 47, healthcare costs 48, 49, mortality 50–53, and suicide 22, 54, 55.”

    From Evaluating psychosocial contributions to chronic pain outcomes (2018) · cites this paper as [48]

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Burke, A. L. J., Mathias, J. L., & Denson, L. A.
Affiliations
  • Royal Adelaide Hospital (AU)
  • The University of Adelaide (AU)
Corresponding author
Burke, Anne L. J.
ORCID
Venue
British Journal of Clinical Psychology
Publisher
Wiley
Published
2015-03-13
Volume
54
Issue
3
Pages
345-360
ISSN
  • 0144-6657 (ISSN-L)
  • 2044-8260
DOI
10.1111/bjc.12078
OpenAlex
W2082947525
Cited by
239
References
46
Citations by year
2026: 16 · 2025: 28 · 2024: 20 · 2023: 27 · 2022: 21 · 2021: 20 · 2020: 25 · 2019: 25 · 2018: 21 · 2017: 19 · 2016: 13 · 2015: 4
FWCI
2.38
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor (vor)
Locations
  • British Journal of Clinical Psychology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Adelaide Research & Scholarship (AR&S) (University of Adelaide) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • American Psychological Association
  • Cilag
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Pharmacology › Musculoskeletal pain and rehabilitation
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine › Pain Management and Treatment
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health › Pediatric Pain Management Techniques
Keywords
chronic pain, psychological functioning, depression, anxiety, somatization, anger, hostility, self-efficacy, self-esteem, emotional functioning, pain-related anxiety, fear of pain, psychological comorbidity
MeSH terms
Adult, Anger, Anxiety, Depression, Fear, Female, Hostility, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Quality of Life, Self Concept, Somatoform Disorders, Stress, Psychological, Databases, Factual, Self Efficacy, Chronic Pain

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