An investigation of pain intensity patterns and psychosomatic symptoms among the cardiac patients admitted to an Iranian hospital

BACKGROUND: Heart diseases are the main reasons of death in the developed countries. This study was conducted with the aim of investigating the patterns of pain intensity and psychosomatic symptoms among cardiac patients. METHODS: This is a descriptive study and the statistical population included all the cardiac patients who were admitted to an Iranian Hospital (Kermanshah-Imam Ali Hospital) during 2018 (From July to November) 250 people were selected out of the population using convenience sampling and 180 patients answered pain intensity assessment tools, the patient health questionnaire (PHQ-15) and the patient demographic information form. RESULTS: The results of this study indicated moderate (52.2%), low (36.1%) and high (11.7%) levels of pain intensity plus mild (4.4%), moderate (28.3%) and severe (67.2%) psychosomatic symptoms with the most common psychosomatic symptoms being chest pain (52.8%), fatigue (52.8%), shortness of breath (49.4%), heart palpitation (47.8%).The results of chi-square test showed a no significant relationship between psychosomatic symptoms and variables of age, marital status, drug abuse and pain intensity (p> 0.05), however, significant relationship was found between psychosomatic symptoms and gender (p< 0.001). Moreover, there was no significant relationship between pain intensity and age, gender, marital status and drug abuse at the level of (p>0.05). CONCLUSION: Psychosomatic symptoms and pain intensity are associated with certain functional disorders and health care, therefore, identifying psychosomatic symptoms and pain intensity is very useful in assessing the effectiveness of clinical approaches on cardiac patients.