Nieto Rubén, Pardo Rebeca, Sora Beatriz, Feliu-Soler Albert, Luciano Juan V
eHealth Lab Research Group, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, 08018 Barcelona, Spain.
Centro de Psicología Aplicada, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 28049 Madrid, Spain.
J Clin Med. 2020 Nov 5;9(11):3558. doi: 10.3390/jcm9113558.
The corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is one of the most important healthcare and societal challenges to have emerged in the last century. It may have effects on both physical and psychosocial health, but studies considering the impact on vulnerable populations, such as people with chronic pain, are needed. In this cross-sectional study, an online survey of relevant chronic pain domains, coping strategies, triggers and potential related variables was answered by 502 Spanish individuals with chronic pain. Participants were mainly women (88%) with longstanding chronic pain and moderate to high pain intensity and disability. The perception of pain aggravation and the most pain-related outcomes were observed. Contextual variables such as job insecurity, worries about the future, people cohabiting, being close to someone who had passed away, or being potentially infected with COVID-19 were related to worse outcomes. More than half the participants altered their pain management style (e.g., increased medication intake) and several changes occurred with respect to pain triggers (cognitions, feelings of insecurity and loneliness, and sleeping problems were more frequently reported as triggers during lockdown). Our preliminary results highlight the negative effects of lockdown on patients with chronic pain as well as the need to make available cost-effective and remotely accessible healthcare resources for counteracting them.
2019年冠状病毒病（COVID-19）大流行是上个世纪出现的最重要的医疗保健和社会挑战之一。它可能对身体和心理社会健康都有影响，但需要开展研究来考量其对诸如慢性疼痛患者等弱势群体的影响。在这项横断面研究中，502名患有慢性疼痛的西班牙人对一项关于相关慢性疼痛领域、应对策略、触发因素及潜在相关变量的在线调查作出了回应。参与者主要为女性（88%），患有长期慢性疼痛，疼痛强度及残疾程度为中度至高度。研究观察了疼痛加剧的感知情况以及与疼痛最相关的结果。诸如工作不安全感、对未来的担忧、共同居住的人、身边有人去世或有可能感染COVID-19等背景变量与更糟糕的结果相关。超过半数的参与者改变了他们的疼痛管理方式（例如，增加药物摄入量），并且在疼痛触发因素方面出现了一些变化（在封锁期间，认知、不安全感和孤独感以及睡眠问题作为触发因素的报告更为频繁）。我们的初步结果凸显了封锁对慢性疼痛患者的负面影响，以及提供具有成本效益且可远程获取的医疗资源以应对这些影响的必要性。
