Biomedical subjects

Edgar Dawson

Publications and source records attributed to Edgar Dawson.

2 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1981

Principal dimensions of the pain experience and psychological disturbance in chronic low back pain patients.

The principal dimensions of the pain experience of 102 patients with chronic low back pain were studied and components of the pain experience were compared to pre-treatment measures of emotional disturbance. Responses on the McGill Pain Questionnaire (MPQ) were factor analyzed revealing dimensions of the pain experience that seemed to represent sensory, affective, and evaluative aspects. Patients with high scores on the MMPI hypochondriasis scale portrayed their pain as more intense and as high in terms of affective and evaluative descriptors on the MPQ. Other MMPI scales reflecting emotional disturbance (depression, hysteria) were also associated with a more intense description of pain and higher scores on an affective descriptor dimension. The evaluation descriptive dimension was highly related to the overall intensity of the pain experience. Only the affective dimension was related to emotional disturbance separately from the effects of intensity alone.

Adult↗

PubMed1977

Differences between functional versus organic low back pain patients.

There are contradictory findings about whether there are differences in personality and/or amount of emotional disturbance between patients with functional versus organic low back pain. The MMPI scores of 42 back pain patients diagnosed as "organic" were compared with the scores of 37 patients classified as "functional". The functional patients scored significantly higher than the organics on the Hs, Hy, Pd, Sc, Ma, and Si scales. The organics scored significantly higher than the functionals on the K scale. The results confirm the view that certain symptoms of emotional disturbance are more characteristic of patients who have relatively little evidence of physical findings. However, the degree of overlap between groups was high enough to suggest caution in making predictions and diagnoses about functional versus organic pain on individual patients solely on the basis of personality data.

Adult↗