Abstrakt: | Chronic low back pain affects 50-80% of the population, while its consequences may impair the functioning
of patients suffering from it, in many spheres of life . Hope is a factor which may influence coping with pain as well as
cognitive reflection of pain experience. The aim of the study has been to check: 1) whether dependencies exist between
hope-trait and hope-state and the perception of pain; 2) whether experiencing pain at the time of filling questionnaires
matters for the assessment of the level of hope; 3) whether there is interaction between hope, the pain experienced at
the moment of investigation, and memory of the intensity of previously experienced pain. 150 patients participated in
the study, they all reported aggravation of the chronic low back pain syndrome. The study was a cross-sectional study,
based on questionnaires. On the third day of treatment the subjects were given the following questionnaires: Trait Hope
Scale, State Hope Scale, and Numerical Rating Scale of Pain to fill. Poor correlation was demonstrated to exist between
hope-state and hope-pathways on the one hand, and the intensity of minimum pain level experienced during the first three
days of treatment. It has been noted that the presence of pain at the time of filling questionnaires results in reducing the
hope-state, but only in those persons, who had experienced severe pain previously. On the other hand, in case of patients
who had experienced slight pain previously, the pain present when filling in the questionnaires is conducive to enhanced
hope-state. The results of the study confirm the complex character of relations between hope and pain. |