Further investigation of the role of personality, lifestyle and arthritic severity in predicting pain.
Lichtenberg et al. (1984) presented empirical research on elderly osteoarthritics that indicated that personality, specifically hypochondriasis, was the most powerful predictor of pain as compared with arthritic severity and recent life stress. This study investigated further the role of psychological predictors and arthritic severity ratings in accounting for perceived pain. The study included 70 subjects with an average age of 68 years. The results indicated that hypochondriasis was the predictor most highly related to pain. Arthritic severity ratings and other psychological predictors were also significantly related to pain. In a multiple regression analysis arthritic severity predicted 13 percent of pain variance whereas the psychological predictors accounted for an additional 41 percent of the variance. Age of the individual was related to several psychological variables. New possibilities for therapeutic intervention are discussed.