Pain Behavior in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients: Identification of Pain Behavior Subgroups

Abstract This study used Ward's minimum variance hierarchical cluster analysis to identify homogeneous subgroups of rheumatoid arthritis patients suffering from chronic pain who exhibited similar pain behavior patterns during a videotaped behavior sample. Ninety-two rheumatoid arthritis patient...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of pain and symptom management 2008-07, Vol.36 (1), p.69-78
Main Authors: Waters, Sandra J., PhD, Riordan, Paul A., BA, Keefe, Francis J., PhD, Lefebvre, John C., PhD
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult and adolescent clinical studies
Anesthesia & Perioperative Care
Arthritis, Rheumatoid - diagnosis
Arthritis, Rheumatoid - epidemiology
Biological and medical sciences
Comorbidity
Diseases of the osteoarticular system
Female
Humans
Inflammatory joint diseases
Male
Medical sciences
Mental Disorders - diagnosis
Mental Disorders - epidemiology
Middle Aged
Miscellaneous
observable pain behaviors
Pain - diagnosis
Pain - epidemiology
Pain behavior subgroups
Pain Measurement - statistics & numerical data
Pain Medicine
Pharmacology. Drug treatments
Prevalence
psychological distress
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
rheumatoid arthritis
Risk Assessment - methods
self-report pain levels
South Carolina - epidemiology
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Summary:Abstract This study used Ward's minimum variance hierarchical cluster analysis to identify homogeneous subgroups of rheumatoid arthritis patients suffering from chronic pain who exhibited similar pain behavior patterns during a videotaped behavior sample. Ninety-two rheumatoid arthritis patients were divided into two samples. Six motor pain behaviors were examined: guarding, bracing, active rubbing, rigidity, grimacing, and sighing. The cluster analysis procedure identified four similar subgroups in Samples 1 and 2. The first subgroup exhibited low levels of all pain behaviors. The second subgroup exhibited a high level of guarding and low levels of other pain behaviors. The third subgroup exhibited high levels of guarding and rigidity and low levels of other pain behaviors. The fourth subgroup exhibited high levels of guarding and active rubbing and low levels of other pain behaviors. Sample 1 contained a fifth subgroup that exhibited a high level of active rubbing and low levels of other pain measures. The results of this study suggest that there are homogeneous subgroups within rheumatoid arthritis patient populations who differ in the motor pain behaviors they exhibit.
ISSN:0885-3924
1873-6513
DOI:10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2007.08.015