The Effectiveness of Laminectomy Surgery in Marital Adjustment of Patients with Chronic Low Back Pain

Abstract

Background: Chronic low back pain is a common problem in primary care. Low back pain is one of the most common causes of disability that affects different aspects of these patients’ lives. One of the aspects that are affected by chronic low back pain is couples’ marital adjustment. Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of laminectomy surgery in marital adjustment of patients with chronic low back pain. Methods: The study design was quasi-experimental. The statistical population of this research consisted of all patients with chronic back pain referred to Fatemi Hospital in Ardabil. The instrument used in this research to collect data was Spanier Dyadic Adjustment scale (DAS) distributed once before surgery and once 3 months after surgery. The data were analyzed by dependent t-test using SPSS software. Results: Forty persons (55.6%) were female, and 32 persons (44.4%) were male. The results showed that marital adjustment significantly increased after the laminectomy surgery in terms of the following dimensions, marital satisfaction, solidarity, affection, and mutual trust compared to the before surgery (P < 0.05). Conclusions: Considering the obtained results, the laminectomy surgery in patients with chronic back pain causes an increase in marital adjustment in terms of all dimensions.

The Mediating Role of Sexual Self-esteem in the Relationship Between Marital Quality and Psychological Adaptation to Illness in Women with Chronic Pain Illness

“…Therefore, high sexual self-esteem resulting from the desirable marital quality helps women with chronic pain have a positive view about themselves and their marital abilities and also an optimistic view about others; it also helps them increase psychological and social adaptation to chronic pain. In support of this, researchers believe that people who are more adaptable are more optimistic about themselves and others, more focus on their life priorities, have more intimate family relationships, better cope with their physical conditions, have higher physical activities, are more optimistic about their illness, and experience faster recovery than their less adaptable counterparts (17).…”

“…In this regard, previous studies show that patients' access to various sources of support reduces emotional helplessness and inability to cope with pain, reduces patients' negative emotions and anxiety, and increases their ability to cope with disease. Providing support also improves these individuals' overall performance and thus increases psychological adaptation in them (17).…”

“…When sexual self-esteem is impaired, life satisfaction, the ability to experience pleasure, interaction with others, and the ability to form intimate relationships with others are damaged. If damage to sexual self-esteem is severe, it can cause severe dysfunction (17). In other words, sexual self-esteem and subsequent sexual satisfaction affect both the quality of married life and the individual's overall health in various dimensions.…”