Prediction of Chronic Pain Components based on Mentalization, Emotion Regulation and Empathy in Patients with Chronic Pain

Chronic pain is one of the most common issues that has encouraged the military population to seek medical care. This study aimed was to predict the components of chronic pain based on empathy, mentalization, and emotion regulation in patients with chronic pain.

The study was a descriptive correlational study and the statistical population was all patients with chronic pain, especially musculoskeletal pain in the period from April to August 2020 who were referred to the rheumatology clinic of Baqiyatallah Hospital in Tehran. The sample consisted of 339 people who were selected by convenience sampling method and answered the questionnaires about chronic pain, mentalization, difficulties in emotion regulation, and Empathy. After collecting the data, its analysis was performed using version 22 of SPSS software.

There was a significant relationship between both components of chronic pain with predictor variables except emotional empathy about the pain intensity component at the level of less than 0.05. The highest rate of variability by predictor variables with a coefficient of determination of 0.58 for pain inability, 0.54 for difficulty in emotion regulating, 0.02 for mentalization and emotional empathy 0.02, and the coefficient of determination for pain intensity was 0.43 which the highest variability was related to the difficulty of emotion regulation (0.42) and then Mentalization (0.01).

Using the results, it is possible to take measures in the form of psychological training in the field of emotion regulation and chronic pain in the direction of health and chronic pain management for other at-risk groups, especially the military population.