The Relationship Between Emotion Regulation Strategies and Lifestyle with Pain Severity in Patients with Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain in Pain Clinics of Mashhad

The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between behavioral emotion regulation and lifestyle with pain intensity in patients with chronic skeletal pain disorder attending pain clinics in Mashhad. The study employed a descriptive-correlational research design. Both field methods (questionnaires) and library research (books and articles) were used for data collection. Additionally, the study is applied in nature, as its findings can be used to improve the status of the examined variables.

The statistical population consisted of all patients who were diagnosed with chronic skeletal pain disorder by physicians and referred to pain clinics in Mashhad during the second quarter of 2023. Due to the inability to precisely count the population size, the sample size was estimated using the Tabachnick and Fidell formula (2007). Accordingly, a sample of 160 participants was selected using convenience sampling.

Data were collected using the Behavioral Emotion Regulation Questionnaire by Craig and Garnefski (2019), the Lifestyle Questionnaire by Kern et al. (1997), and the McGill Pain Questionnaire (2009). Based on the results of the correlation test, there was a significant positive relationship between withdrawal and pain intensity (r = 0.168) and between ignoring and pain intensity (r = 0.159). Furthermore, a significant negative relationship was found between coping and pain intensity (r = -0.190), while a significant positive relationship was observed between cautiousness and pain intensity (r = 0.202).