The Acute versus Chronic Pain Questionnaire (ACPQ) and actual pain experience in older people

• Published in: Aging & mental health Vol. 6; no. 3; pp. 304 - 312
• Main Authors: Scherder, E. J. A., Smit, R., Vuijk, P. J., Bouma, A., Sergeant, J. A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Taylor & Francis Group 01.08.2002
• Subjects: Activities of Daily Living - psychology; Acute Disease; Aged; Aging - psychology; Chronic Disease; Female; Humans; Male; Mental Status Schedule; Middle Aged; Pain - classification; Pain - psychology; Pain Measurement - statistics & numerical data; Pain Threshold
• ISSN: 1360-7863; 1364-6915
• DOI: 10.1080/13607860220142378

The Acute versus Chronic Pain Questionnaire (ACPQ) was applied to older people. Two groups emerged from an analysis of which an item of each pair (an acute and a chronic affective item) was considered to cause the most suffering. One group of subjects comprised those who expected to suffer more from one or more acute pain items (high-ACPQ group, n = 35). A second group emerged for whom none of the acute items was considered to be a burden (low-ACPQ group, n = 33). It was hypothesized that, compared to the low-ACPQ group, the subjects with high-ACPQ scores selected acute ACPQ-items due to a decline in the experience of chronic affective pain. This hypothesis predicted lower scores on the chronic ACPQ-items and lower scores on scales evaluating the subjects' own chronic affective pain. The results showed that, irrespective of the group, the chronic ACPQ-items were considered to produce the most burdens. However, compared with the low-ACPQ group, the high-ACPQ group reported experiencing significantly more pain from the acute ACPQ-items. Moreover, the latter group indicated suffering less pain from their own chronic pain conditions. The present findings suggest that the selection of one or more acute items of the ACPQ (high-ACPQ group) may point to an alteration in subjects' actual pain experience.