Pain-related disability and opioid use in a sample of young adults with current pain: The explanatory role of distress tolerance.

Objective

The current study examined the mediating role of distress tolerance on the association between pain-related disability and addiction to opioids, past-month opioid use, and risky opioid use among an ethno-racially diverse sample of young adults with current pain.

Methods

Participants were 141 undergraduate college students (78.7% female, M age = 22.50, SD = 5.41) who reported experiencing current pain.

Results

Results indicated that distress tolerance statistically significantly explained the relationship between pain-related disability and addiction to opioids, past-month opioid use, and risky opioid use after controlling for the variance accounted for by pain intensity, negative affectivity, gender, and other substance misuses.

Conclusions

Clinical implications are discussed in terms of targeting distress tolerance in the context of pain-related disability among young adults with pain who are at risk for opioid misuse.