Mental Defeat & Chronic Pain
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Mental Defeat & its Influence on the Overall Experience of Chronic Pain: A multi-method research programme
IRAS ID
208630
Contact name
Nicole Tang
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Warwick
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 0 months, 16 days
Research summary
Mental defeat is a new construct being used within chronic pain to explain individual differences in distress and disability. Research in the field of chronic pain and mental defeat has repeatedly shown strong associations between mental defeat and common chronic pain outcomes. Specifically, mental defeat has been linked to higher levels of pain interference, poorer sleep, depression and anxiety, and physical disability. This illustrates that mental defeat may be an important factor in explaining these factors and thus may aid future research in improving treatment and alleviate symptoms of chronic pain.
However, findings and recommendations from previous research suggest that the relationship between mental defeat and other common constructs in chronic pain should be looked at over time to see how it may impact important outcomes, such as quality of life and sleep amongst others. Secondly, research shows that mental defeat could affect how individuals seek treatment for chronic pain, but more evidence is needed to establish why that may be. Finally, there is no experimental evidence looking at how an activated sense of mental defeat could influence pain perception, thus the next logical step is to see whether there is a causal relationship between mental defeat and pain perception in chronic pain.
The proposed research programme consists of a series of three interlinked studies. These are, a 6-month longitudinal study to look at how mental develops and changes over time; an interview study to explore how mental defeat affects treatment seeking; and an experimental study to investigate the effects that an activated sense of mental defeat may have on the perception of pain. Participants will be invited to first take part in the longitudinal study. If they fit more specific inclusion criteria for the interview or experiment studies, they will be invited to take part in these as well.
REC name
West Midlands - Solihull Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/WM/0470
Date of REC Opinion
29 Nov 2016
REC opinion
Unfavourable Opinion