Beyond solicitousness: a comprehensive review on informal pain-related social support

Abstract

Adults with chronic pain cite social support (SS) as an important resource. Research has mostly focused on general SS or pain-specific solicitousness, resulting in a limited understanding of the role of SS in pain experiences. Drawing on SS theoretical models, this review aimed to understand how pain-related SS has been conceptualized and measured and how its relationship with pain experiences has been investigated. Arksey and O'Malley scoping review framework guided the study. A database search (2000-2015) was conducted in PsycINFO, CINAHL, MEDLINE, and EMBASE using a combination of subject headings/keywords on pain and SS; 3864 citations were screened; 101 full texts were assessed for eligibility; references of 52 papers were hand searched. Fifty-three studies were included. Most studies were either a-theoretical or drew upon the operant conditioning model. There are several self-report measures and observational systems to operationalize pain-related SS. However, the Multidimensional Pain Inventory remains the most often used, accounting for the centrality of the concept of solicitousness in the literature. Most studies focused on individuals with chronic pain self-report of spousal pain-related SS and investigated its main effects on pain outcomes. Only a minority investigated the role of pain SS within the stress and coping process (as a buffer or mediator). Little is known about mediating pathways, contextual modulation of the effectiveness of SS exchanges, and there are practically no SS-based intervention studies. Drawing on general SS models, the main gaps in pain-related SS research are discussed and research directions for moving this literature beyond solicitousness are proposed.

<p>Pain Diagnosis, Pain Coping, and Function in Individuals with Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain</p>

“…3,14,24,25 Moreover, limited research suggests that pain diagnosis may moderate the association between psychosocial factors and physical and psychological function. 26,27 These findings support the possibility that the role that a coping response plays in an individual's adjustment to chronic pain may be influenced by a variety of factors, including pain diagnosis. For example, the use of relaxation may play an important role in preventing or reducing the impact of headache, 28 while relaxation may play only a minor role in preventing or reducing the impact of low back pain.…”

Chronic pain patients can be classified into four groups: Clustering-based discriminant analysis of psychometric data from 4665 patients referred to a multidisciplinary pain centre (a SQRP study)

“…Future research should evaluate to what extent and how gender aspects contribute to the rating of social support and evaluate whether certain interventions can be implemented to address the low social support, e.g., education for relatives. There is a lack of social support-based interventional studies [ 84 ]. As this group was also characterized by long pain durations, it appeared these patients to a certain extent handled their situation without markedly increasing their depressive and anxiety symptoms; this was not the case for group 2, where the highest values were found.…”

Satisfaction with Social Support Received from Social Relationships in Cases of Chronic Pain: The Influence of Personal Network Characteristics in Terms of Structure, Composition and Functional Content

“…Thus, this study focuses on the quality of social support received from personal networks in the context of chronic pain. This dimension has seldom been researched [36,38] despite being a highly relevant health problem due to its prevalence, complexity, and the consequences for both the individual and the social environment in which it is embedded [39,40]. Our approach provides a rich set of measures at the tie level that allows us to measure with detail personal networks' structure, composition, and functional content of social support along with its perceived quality.…”