[Pelvi-perineal chronic pain, urgent demands of care and decision-making].

OBJECTIVE

Some patients suffering from pelvi-perineal chronic pain express urgent, even vital, demands of care. The objective was to compare the profile and the psychological functioning of the patients, who have shown an imperious demand of care, in that of the patients who do not have an imperious demand of care.

MATERIAL AND METHOD: From the medical consultations for chronic pelviperineal pain, we realized a comparative study including 26 patients (experimental group) expressing an urgent demand of care (i.e., patients who, during the last 3months, called an emergency service concerning the pains for which they consult in the service) and 28 patients (control group) without an urgent demand of care (i.e., patient who, during the last 3months, did not call an emergency service concerning the pains for which they consult in the service). All the patients were tested through a cognitive task of decision-making (Iowa Gambling Task) and through explicit measures of pain and its main psychological associated factors (anxiety, depression, impulsivity an catastrophism).

RESULTS

In the first place, the patients from the experimental group possess decision-making abilities equivalent to the patients of the control group; however, both groups of patients show, in the beginning of the test, a deficit in the decision-making (F(4.208)=3.4116; P=.009). Secondly, the measures to questionnaires reveal that the patients of the control group have less severe scores in the scales of depression (t(52)=-2.068; P<04), catastrophism (amplification : t(52)=-3.069; P<0035; powerlessness: t(52)=-2.866, P<.006) and impulsivity (positive urgency: t(52)=-2.246, P<029; lack of premeditation: t(52)=-2.175, P<035) than the patients of the experimental group.

CONCLUSION

The use of explicit measures (questionnaire) and implicit measures (experimental task) allowed to objectify more precisely the differences between the chronic pain patients in urgent demand of care and the other chronic pain patients. This psychological specificity obliges us to approach differently the caring of these patients in particular by proposing adapted cognitivo-behavioral techniques.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 3.