Coping, depression, anxiety, self-efficacy and social support: Impact on adjustment to chronic pain

Pain is a multidimensional, unique, and private experience. Contemporary biopsychosocial models of chronic pain hypothesize a key role for psychosocial factors as contributing to the experience of and adjustment to chronic pain. The psychosocial factors that have been most often examined as they relate to chronic pain include coping responses, attributions (such as self-efficacy), mood (including depression and anxiety), and social support. Knowledge concerning the relative importance of each of these factors to adjustment is necessary for understanding and developing effective psychosocial interventions. This article reviews the literature concerning the associations between psychosocial factors and adjustment to chronic pain, with a focus on coping, attributions, mood, and social support. Overall, the findings of this research are consistent with biopsychosocial models of chronic pain, and support continued research to help identify the causal relationships among key psychosocial variables and adjustment.