Psychological Flexibility as a Resilience Factor In Individuals with Chronic Pain

Course overview

This course is based upon material published in Original Research and is available as an open access article. Resilience factors have been suggested as key mechanisms in the relation between symptoms and disability among individuals with chronic pain. However, there is a need to better operationalize resilience and to empirically evaluate its role and function. The present study examined psychological flexibility as a resilience factor in relation to symptoms and functioning among adults with chronic pain. Participants completed measures of symptoms (pain intensity, and anxiety), functioning (pain interference and depression), as well as the hypothesized resilience factor psychological flexibility (measured as avoidance, value obstruction, and value progress). As expected, symptoms, functioning and resilience factors were significantly associated. Analyses showed that psychological flexibility significantly contributed to the prediction of pain interference and depression when adjusting for age, pain and anxiety. Also, participants with low levels of psychological flexibility were more likely to be on sick leave. Furthermore, a series of multiple mediation analyses showed that psychological flexibility had a significant indirect effect on the relationship between symptoms and functioning. Avoidance was consistently shown to contribute to the indirect effect. Results support previous findings and suggest the importance of psychological flexibility as a resilience factor among individuals with chronic pain and anxiety. This course on resilience in the face of chronic pain is designed for social workers, professional counselors, psychologists, nurses, and substance abuse counselors, who do clinical work. This course is appropriate for beginning, intermediate and advanced level practitioners who wish to develop or increase their knowledge of psychological flexibility and resilience in chronic pain. It may also be useful for licensed clinicians who require clinical continuing education courses for license renewal. The course is based on a journal article which includes research. It contains statistical analysis and data that some clinicians enjoy reading and others do not. A major benefit of reading research-based articles for continuing education is they provide practitioners with the latest findings in their field. Authors: Charlotte Gentili, Jenny Rickardsson, Vendela Zetterqvist, Laura E. Simons, Mats Lekender, and Rikard K. Wicksell Learning Objectives: This course will provide the practitioner with detailed information regarding psychological flexibility as a resilience factor in individuals with chronic pain. Specifically, a professional will: Recognize the relationship between symptoms, functioning, and psychological flexibility Distinguish the amount of variance in functioning explained by psychological flexibility Describe the indirect effects of psychological flexibility in the relationship between symptoms and functioning Citation: Gentili, Charlotte, et al. Psychological Flexibility as a Resilience Factor in Individuals With Chronic Pain. Original Research, 03 Sept 2019