Pain Beliefs and Perceptions and Their Relationship with Coping Strategies, Stress, Anxiety, and Depression in Patients with Cancer

OBJECTIVE: The current study was conducted aiming at the investigation of pain beliefs and perceptions and their relationship with coping strategies, stress, anxiety, and depression in patients with cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Study design: This was a descriptive-correlational and cross-sectional study. Data collection tools – Demographic questionnaire, Pain Beliefs and Perceptions Inventory, Pain Coping Strategies Questionnaire (Rosenstiel and Keefe), and Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale were used in this study. The dataset was analyzed using descriptive and infreretial statistics that included the chi-square and one-way ANOVA with software SPSS v.16 analysis. RESULTS: Findings of the study indicated that the most common belief about pain in patients is pain permanence. In addition, the most commonly used strategies for coping pain in patients were praying/hoping (25.82 ± 7.86) and self-statements (22.3 ± 10.34). Results indicated that there is a significant difference between pain coping strategies and pain control (P = 0.02). No significant difference was observed between the pain beliefs and the coping strategies (P = 0.15). Depression and anxiety level of patients was estimated as moderate, and their stress was estimated as mild. It was specified that there is a significant difference between self-blame belief and depression of patients (P = 0.01). CONCLUSION: Understanding and identifying emotional-psychological variables in patients with chronic pains may provide a basis for implementing educational cognitive-behavioral programs for patients and the ground for increasing the ability to control the pain in nonpharmacological methods leading to promoting quality of life in these patients.