Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T21:27:40.941Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Relation of Pain to the Eysenck Personality Inventory, Cornell Medical Index and Whiteley Index of Hypochondriasis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

M. R. Bond*
Affiliation:
The Institute of Neurological Sciences, Southern General Hospital, 1345 Govan Road, Glasgow, S. W.1; University Department of Psychiatry, Sheffield

Extract

Pain in organic disease has anatomical, physiological and psychological components which are inseparably linked, but there does not appear to be a strict relationship between the nature and apparent severity of noxious stimulation and the point at which different individuals experience pain. Moreover, in any group of patients at the same stage of an illness known to be associated with pain, some complain whereas others do not. Many factors are known to influence pain and complaint behaviour. The elderly experience less pain than younger patients with similar disorders (Exton-Smith, 1961). Pain thresholds tend to be lower in women than men, and racial differences are significant when considering both thresholds and complaint behaviour (Merskey and Spear, 1967). Pain may not be immediately associated with wounding in the physical and emotional struggles of battle, and the later intensity of suffering has been shown to be related to the significance of the wound to the patient (Beecher, 1956). There is an increase in pain in the presence of anxiety (Kennard, 1952; Masson, 1966) and Cole (1965) reported that factors associated with persistent pain include a disagreeable environment, a long history of pain, anxiety, depression, poor general health, resentment and lack of confidence in the doctor. Complaint behaviour is regarded by some as a learned response developed in childhood (Schilder, 1935; Russell, 1962; Sarbin, 1962; Simpson and others 1965). Bond and Pilowsky (1966) have demonstrated that in a clinical setting differences in complaint behaviour between the sexes depend in part upon the attitudes of nursing staff towards pain.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1971 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Beecher, H. K. (1956). ‘Relationship of significance of wound to pain experienced.’ J. Amer. med. Assoc., 161, 1609.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bendien, J. (1963). ‘The value of questionnaires testing the dimensions of neuroticism and extraversion in psychosomatic research.’ J. psychosom. Res., 7, 1.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bond, M. R., Pilowsky, I. (1966). ‘Subjective assessment of pain and its relationship to the administration of analgesics in patients with advanced cancer.’ J. psychosom. Res., 10, 203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bond, M. R., Pilowsky, I. and Pearson, I. B. (1969). ‘Psychological aspects of pain in women with advanced cancer of cervix.’ J. psychosom. Res., 13, 13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bond, M. R., Pilowsky, I. and Pearson, I. B. (1970). Unpublished data.Google Scholar
Brodman, K., Erdman, A. J., Loroe, I., Wolff, H. G. (1949). ‘The Cornell Medical Index. I. An adjunct to medical interviews.’ J. Amer. med. Assoc., 140, 530.Google Scholar
Brodman, K., Erdman, A. J., Loroe, I., Wolff, H. G., and Gershenson, C. P. (1952). ‘The CMI—Health Questionnaire. III. The evaluation of emotional disturbance.’ J. clin. Psychol., 8, 119.3.0.CO;2-V>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Claridge, G. S. (1969). Personal communication.Google Scholar
Clarke, P. R. F., Spear, F. G. (1964). ‘Reliability and sensitivity in the self-assessment of well-being.’ Bull. Brit, psychol. Soc., 17, 55. 18A.Google Scholar
Cole, R. (1965). ‘The problem of pain in persistent cancer.’ Med. J. Aust., 52, 682.Google Scholar
Culpan, R. H., Davies, B. M., Oppenheim, A. N. (1960). ‘Incidence of psychiatric illness among hospital outpatients’. Brit. med. J., i, 855.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Exton-Smith, A. N. (1961). ‘Terminal illness in the aged.’ Lancet, ii, 305.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eysenck, H. J., Eysenck, S. G. B. (1964). Manual of the Eysenck Personality Inventory. Univ. of London Press.Google Scholar
Eysenck, H. J., Eysenck, S. G. B. (1968). In American Lectures in Living Chemistry. Ed. Kugelmass, . Chas Thomas. Springfield, Ill. Google Scholar
Eysenck, S. G. B. (1961). ‘Personality and pain assessments in childbirth of married and unmarried mothers.’ J. ment. Sci., 107, 417.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Eysenck, S. G. B. and Eysenck, H. J. (1963). ‘Acquiescence response set in personality questionnaires.’ Life Sciences, 2, 144.Google Scholar
Hamilton, M., Pond, D. A., Ryle, A. (1962). ‘Relation of CMI responses to some social and psychological factors.’ J. psychosom. Res., 6, 157.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Huggen, R. E. (1968). ‘Neuroticism, distortion and objective manifestations of anxiety in males with malignant disease.’ Brit. J. soc. clin. Psychol., 7, 280.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kennard, M. (1952). ‘The responses to painful stimuli of patients with severe chronic painful conditions.’ J. clin. Invest., 31, 245.Google Scholar
Kissen, D. M., Eysenck, H. J. (1962). ‘Personality in male lung cancer patients.’ J. psychosom. Res., 6, 123.Google Scholar
Kissen, D. M., Eysenck, H. J. (1964). ‘The influence of some environmental factors on personality inventory scores in psychosomatic research.’ J. psychosom. Res., 8, 145.Google Scholar
Knox, S. J. (1963). ‘An evaluation of CMI responses in the identification of psychiatric illness associated with mitral surgery.’ J. psychosom. Res., 7, 35.Google Scholar
Masson, A. H. B. (1966). ‘The value and limitations of subjective assessments of pain and analgesia.’ Proc. Roy. Soc. Med., Suppl. 81, 4.Google Scholar
Merskey, H., Spear, F. C. (1967). Pain, Psychological and Psychiatric Aspects. Ballière, Tindall and Cassell, London.Google Scholar
Petrie, A., Collins, W., Solomon, P. (1960). ‘Tolerance for pain and sensory deprivation.’ Amer. J. Psychol., 73, 80.Google Scholar
Pilowsky, I. (1967). ‘Dimensions of hypochondriasis.’ Brit. J. Psychiat., 113, 89.Google Scholar
Russell, D. W. R. (1962). ‘Discussion on the treatment of intractable pain.’ Proc. Roy. Soc. Med., 52, 983.Google Scholar
Ryle, A., Hamilton, M. (1962). ‘Neurosis in fifty married couples.’ J. ment. Sci., 108, 265.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sainsbury, P. (1960). ‘Psychosomatic disorders and neurosis in outpatients attending a general hospital.’ J. psychosom. Res., 4, 261.Google Scholar
Sarbin, T. R. (1962). Personal communication, cit, Gonda, T. A. (1962). ‘The relation between complaints of persistent pain and family size.’ J. neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiat., 25, 277.Google Scholar
Schalling, D., Levander, S. (1964). ‘Ratings of anxiety-proneness and responses to electrical pain stimulation.’ Scand. J. Psychol., 5, 1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schilder, P. (1935). The Image and Appearance of the Human Body. International Universities Press.Google Scholar
Simpson, D. A., Rischbieth, R. H. C, Rees, V. E., Burnell, A. W., Cramond, W. A. (1965). ‘Experiences in a pain clinic’ Med. J. Aust., 52, 671.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sternbach, R. A. (1968). Pain: A Psychophysiological Analysis. Academic Press. New York and London.Google Scholar
Verghese, A. (1970). ‘Relationships between the Eysenck Personality Inventory N Score, the Cornell Medical Index M-R Score and the psychogalvanic reflex.’ Brit.J. Psychiat., 116, 27.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.