Examining the Pain Stages of Change Questionnaire in Chronic Pain

Purpose: This study examined the relationships of a readiness to adopt a self-management approach to chronic pain, measured by the Pain Stages of Change Questionnaire (PSOCQ), with other pain-related scales in patients attending a chronic pain management program and determined if these measures changed from admission to discharge. The PSOCQ consists of four stages: Pre-contemplation, Contemplation, Action and Maintenance. Method: A convenience sample of 140 patients (mean age = 43.8 years; SD = 8.3 years) with chronic pain completed the PSOCQ, the Pain Disability Index (PDI), the Pain Intensity Scale (PIS), the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D) and the Multidimensional Health Locus of Control Scale (MHLC) at admission and discharge. The MHLC consists of three subscales: Internal, Chance and Powerful Others. Results: At discharge, Pearson correlation coefficients demonstrated that Pre-contemplation was positively associated with the PDI, the PIS and the CES-D and negatively associated with Internal MHLC, whereas Action and Maintenance showed the opposite findings. There were significant improvements in all measures, except the MHLC, over the four-week program. Conclusions: These findings provide support for the use of the PSOCQ in assessing patients' readiness to adopt a self-management approach to pain and in monitoring their progress in rehabilitation.