Elizabeth Richardson, Ph.D., MSPH, assistant professor in the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R), led a research effort that looked at the role resilience (a person’s ability to adjust in a positive way) has on the relationship between perceived stress and the impact of pain intensity can have on patients with spinal cord injury (SCI) during inpatient rehabilitation. Specifically, the study focused on the patients’ general activities, mood, mobility, social relationships, sleep, and other areas of daily activities that are often negatively impacted by pain.
Fifty-seven participants completed in-person surveys and interviews during their inpatient rehabilitation stay at the UAB SCI Model System. The survey questions focused on patients’ perceived stress, resilience, pain intensity, and pain interference.
“It’s clear that pain is associated with many negative outcomes for people living with SCI,” says Dr. Richardson. “And we see in this study that higher stress during rehabilitation is connected to worse interference from pain during their inpatient rehabilitation. However, the patients who had higher resilience were protected from this adverse effect – they did not experience this stress and pain relationship.”
Richardson, a rehabilitation psychologist and researcher, thinks the results of this study can stimulate additional research on ways rehabilitation professionals can help foster resilience among patients with SCI, particularly those who experience stress during inpatient rehabilitation and pain interference in important life activities.
“Resilience does not mean that people won’t experience stress, but rather resilience seems to lessen the effect of stress such that pain outcomes are improved,” adds Richardson. “We need to better understand ways in which rehabilitation professionals can help patients boost their resilience to improve pain outcomes of people with SCI during inpatient rehabilitation.”
This study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and in part by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research and published in Rehabilitation Psychology.