Instead of making life easier, disability payments and other economic benefits are associated with increased disability and depression in persons with chronic nonmalignant back pain, new research by scientists at the University of Medicine and Dentistry-New Jersey Medical School shows.
Social reward like sympathy from a solicitous spouse or being excused from performing household chores was also associated with increased disability and depression.
In addition, social reward was linked with patients' reports of higher levels of pain and a greater number of nonspecific medical symptoms, according to the study published in the current issue of Psychosomatic Medicine.
"We found that both social and economic rewards were associated with significant differences in behavior. In general, higher levels of reward were associated with higher levels of disability and depression," said Donald S. Ciccone, Ph.D., principal investigator on the study. "However, our study was not designed to establish a cause and effect relationship. We simply documented a strong association or correlation between reward and various measures of illness behavior."
Ciccone and his colleagues selected 75 patients with chronic nonmalignant back pain and assigned them to one of four separate groups ranging from low/economic/low social reward to high/economic/high social reward on the basis of their responses to a survey about their current economic and social circumstances.
The researchers found:
The economic reward scale used in the study was based on self-reported workman's compensation benefits, Social Security disability benefits, other disability income such as private insurance, court settlements and financial assistance from family or friends.
Psychosomatic Medicine is the official peer-reviewed journal of the American Psychosomatic Society, published bimonthly. For information about the journal, contact Joel E. Dimsdale, MD, at 619-543-5468.
Posted by the Center for the Advancement of Health http://www.cfah.org . For information about the Center, call Petrina Chong, pchong@cfah.org 202-387-2829.
Psychosomatic Medicine