QUALITY OF LIFE, PSYCHOLOGICAL AND COGNITIVES ASPECTS IN PATIENTS AFFECTED BY CHRONIC PAIN

Background: Chronic pain is disabling and affects every aspect of the patient's life: the perception of one's own body becomes a negative experience, autonomy is limited in movements or sometimes even in self-care, work and social habits are distorted and the tendency to isolate oneself from others is common. Objective: To analyze how the life of patients suffering from chronic pain is compromised by their health's condition. Method: The sample consisted of 154 patients (women N = 104; men N = 50), between 24 and 80 years old, suffering from chronic pain, recruited at the Pain Therapy clinic – Polyclinic of Bari and subjected to a test battery: Raven, SF-36, BMQ, Brief Pain Inventory and HADS. Results: The collected data were analyzed with SPSS. The analysis of the results obtained by HADS showed the presence of anxiety (46.1%) and depression (40.3%). No significant association between education level and anxiety (2 = 1,271 p= 0,736) and depression (2 = 0,9 p= 0,825). 66,7% of those with greater cognitive impairment have high levels of anxiety. The prevalence of anxiety decreases in relation to the improvement of cognitive performance (2 = 6,629 p= 0,008). Instead, no association with depression was observed (2 = 4,814 p= 0,307). Anxiety and depression correlate negatively with all the subscales of SF-36, negatively affecting the overall perception of well-being of the subject and undermining the adherence to pharmacological treatment. Conclusions: The results that emerged confirmed the literature data and allowed us to state that patients with chronic pain have pervasive depressive and anxious symptoms. Chronic pain involves profound and significant consequences on psychophysical health in those who suffer from it, a decrease in cognitive performance and a marked impairment of quality of life.