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AbstractBackground and aims of the studyThe connection between chronic pain and traumatic experiences in childhood has been established in several studies. The association of emotional maltreatment with chronic pain has been studied, but to a lesser degree. Schema therapy [24] is an extension of cognitive therapy and presents the early maladaptive schema (EMS) concept. EMSs reflect early, mainly emotional maltreatment. The aim of the present study was to examine the existence of EMSs, the association between EMSs and pain variables and EMS driven patterns.Patients and measuresThe study consisted of 271 first visit pain patients. Their socio-demographic data, pain variables and pain disability were assessed. The presence of EMSs was measured using the Young Schema Questionnaire Short Form Extended. One hundred and three successive participants were also interviewed according to the cognitive case conceptualization.ResultsMore than half (58.3%) of the chronic pain patients scored EMSs as meaningful. The patients with meaningful EMSs had significantly higher pain intensity, duration of pain and pain disability. The two most frequently occurring EMSs in male pain patients were Unrelenting Standards/Hypercriticalness (US) (36.2%) and Self-Sacrifice (SS) (23.6%) and in female pain patients SS (40.3%) and US (27.1%). The speech contents of five of the highest scoring US and SS male and female patients (n = 20) were analyzed. The analyses showed schema driven behavior which exacerbated the pain situation. US and SS schemas had a stronger motivational effect on their behavior than the pain itself. Regression analyses showed that Self-Sacrifice schema in women and Emotional Deprivation schema in the total sample predicted pain disability as did pain intensity and the number of pain locations.ConclusionsThis study suggested that a remarkable amount of chronic pain patients may suffer from early maladaptive schemas which have an effect on their current pain situation and may reflect underlying early emotional maltreatment.

Engel (1959) suggested that negative physical or emotional experiences in childhood predispose to the development of chronic pain. Studies have shown that physical and sexual abuse in early life is connected with chronic pain. Emotional adversities are much less studied causes contributing to the development of chronic pain and disability. Early emotional abuse, neglect, maltreatment and other adversities are deleterious childhood experiences which, according to Young's schema theory (1990), produce early maladaptive schemas (EMSs). The primary goal of this study was to examine whether early adversities were more common in chronic pain patients than in a control group. A total of 271 (53% women) first-visit chronic pain patients and 331 (86% women) control participants took part in the study. Their socio-demographic data, pain variables and pain disability were measured. To estimate EMSs the Young Schema Questionnaire was used. Chronic pain patients scored higher EMSs reflecting incapacity to perform independently, catastrophic beliefs and pessimism. The most severely disabled chronic pain patients showed an increase in all the EMSs in the Disconnection and Rejection schema domain, namely Abandonment/Instability, Mistrust/Abuse, Emotional Deprivation, Defectiveness/Shame and Social Isolation/Alienation EMSs. The results of the study suggested that chronic pain patients had suffered early emotional maltreatment.

Chronic pain and depression are coexisting entities with high simultaneous prevalence. Both are linked with early adversities. Early maladaptive schemas (EMS) can be seen as a reflection of these adversities. EMSs extensively indicate underlying psychic patterns and provide a good opportunity to detect covert processes and psychic shapes (latent factors), which create the basis of how people rate their schemas. The purpose of this study was to explore these latent, higher order schema factors (SF) and to find out how they are associated with pain intensity or depression in chronic pain patients and a control sample. The study subjects consisted of 271 first-visit pain patients and 331 control participants. Sociodemographic and pain data were gathered by questionnaire; 18 EMSs were measured with the Young Schema Questionnaire (short form) and depressiveness was measured with the Beck Depression Inventory, Version II. Exploratory factor and regression analyses were used. The chronic pain patient group showed two SFs. The first SF showed a shameful, defective, socially isolated, failure, emotionally inhibited, deprived, submissive and resigned pattern. The second SF showed a demanding, approval seeking, self-sacrificing and punitive pattern. SF1 predicted more than half of the depressiveness in the pain patient sample. A three-factor structure was found in the control sample, and SFs 1 and 3 together predicted almost one-third of depressiveness. The pain patient and the control groups had a different, higher order factor structure. We assume that SF1 in the pain patients reflected a rather serious, undefined early psychic trauma and was also associated with their depressiveness.

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