The mediating role of emotion regulation strategies on the relationship between pain intensity and quality of life in patients with chronic pain disorder

Evidence suggests that emotion regulation plays a key role in pain disorders long-term compatibility. The present study was carried out to examine the mediating role of emotion regulation strategies on the relationship between pain intensity and quality of life (QOL).
In this study, one hundred and twenty patients with chronic pain (32 males, 88 females) were asked to complete the short form of quality of life Questionnaires (SF-36), Emotion Regulation Questionnaires, and Multidimensional pain Questionnaires. The data were analyzed using correlation coefficient, regression analysis, and path analysis.
It was shown that reappraisal had significantly negative association with pain intensity and positive association with quality of life and suppression had significantly positive association with pain intensity and negative association with quality of life. Also, pain intensity was negatively correlated with quality of life. Furthermore, results showed that emotion regulation strategies played a mediating role on the relationship between pain intensity and QOL.
Despite the direct and negative relation between pain intensity and QOL, variability of pain intensity determined indirectly the level of quality of life in patients with chronic pain by mediating emotion regulation strategies