TY - JOUR PY - 2012// TI - The Impact of Sexual or Physical Abuse History on Pain-Related Outcomes among Blacks and Whites with Chronic Pain: Gender Influence JO - Pain medicine A1 - Hart-Johnson, Tamera A1 - Green, Carmen R. SP - 229 EP - 242 VL - 13 IS - 2 N2 - Objectives.  Physical and sexual abuses commonly co-occur with chronic pain. We hypothesized that: 1) abuse history questions would form distinct factors that relate differently to pain perceptions and pain outcomes; 2) abuse history consequences on physical and mental health differ by gender; and 3) different abuse types and age of occurrence (childhood vs adolescent/adulthood) predict different negative outcomes. Methods.  Chronic pain patients at a tertiary care pain center provided data (64% women, 50% black) through a confidential survey. Factors were formed for abuse type and age. Linear regression, controlling for socio-demographic information, was used to examine the relationship between abuse and abuse by sex interactions with pain-related outcomes. Results.  Six 3-item abuse factors (α = 0.77-0.91)-sexual molestation, sexual penetration, and physical abuse-were identified in both childhood and adulthood. Lifetime prevalence of abuse was 70% for men and 65% for women. Women experienced lower physical abuse (P = 0.01) in childhood, and higher penetration (P = 0.02) in adulthood. Decreased general health was associated with all abuse types (P < 0.05) in childhood. Affective pain was associated with all childhood abuse scales and adulthood molestation, though childhood molestation only for men (P = 0.04). Disability was associated with childhood (P = 0.02) and adulthood rape (P = 0.04). Men with childhood or adulthood molestation (P = 0.02; P = 0.02) reported higher post-traumatic stress disorder. Conclusions.  Our study confirms physical and mental health, and pain-related outcomes are affected by abuse history for men and women. These results support screening all patients for abuse to improve the survivor's overall health and well-being.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 1526-2375 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1526-4637.2011.01312.x ID - ref1 ER -