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The UOC is promoting a study to assess psychological flexibility as a means of dealing with pain
  chronic pain psychological flexibility

The research requires at least 500 volunteers aged between 18 and 69 who suffer persistent pain (Photo: Andrea Piacquadio, Pexels)

28/02/2022
Teresa Bau

The project calls for the voluntary collaboration of people with persistent pain

"When someone experiences persistent pain it's important, in order to minimize the negative effect on their life, that they learn to live with it, focusing on achieving their life goals despite the presence of the pain," explained Rubén Nieto, a researcher at eHealth Lab – a group that collaborates with the eHealth Center – and a specialist in persistent pain as well as a member of the UOC's Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences.

One of the challenges of persistent (or chronic) pain is the difficulty in assessing it, since it is a subjective and personal sensation which is determined by psychological and social factors, on top of physiological ones. The assessment of the different psychological aspects relating to the experience of pain is usually carried out using self-report instruments (questionnaires), with which the person reports on their experience. "Unfortunately, in the case of persistent pain, there aren't too many tools for assessing these aspects.  It's essential that these tools be made available in both the clinical and the research spheres, since it's only through valid and reliable measures that we can gain a true understanding of the person's pain and design interventions that may ease it," explained Nieto.

With this goal in mind, a group of experts from different institutions – the UOC, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and the Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu – is developing a project to analyse two assessment tools which serve to quantify a key aspect in explaining why some people, despite their chronic pain, can lead fuller and more functional lives: psychological flexibility.

"Psychological flexibility refers to a set of mental abilities which allow people to maintain an outlook and behaviour centred on core values, or, in other words, geared towards taking care of what one perceives as important in life. These abilities can help deal with persistent pain," explained Juan Vicente Luciano, a promoter of the project and member of teaching staff of the Department of Clinical and Health Psychology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. There are two instruments for evaluating this fundamental aspect, which have been developed on an international level, the Psy-Flex and the Multidimensional Psychological Flexibility Inventory (MPFI). The aim of this project is to study the effectiveness of these two instruments in the population in our cultural context. 

 

Seeking more than 500 participants suffering from persistent pain

The project is the result of collaboration with researchers from the Department of Clinical and Health Psychology of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and the Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu. The UOC is leading the part corresponding to data collection, which will be obtained via questionnaires answered by people who suffer from chronic pain. The criteria for inclusion in the study are people aged between 18 and 69 who have been suffering from non-malignant chronic pain for at least three months, and a frequency of at least twice a week.  The UOC calls for the participation of volunteers who meet this profile (it needs more than 500 participants), who will have to answer this online questionnaire: https://uocuniwide.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_ac0kaelmCKFNXme

 

***The project has been approved by the UOC's Ethics Committee. It should only take between 25 and 30 minutes to participate and doing so will help develop research in the field of persistent pain.

 

This UOC project helps promote Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3, Good Health and Well-being.

 

UOC R&I

The UOC's research and innovation (R&I) is helping overcome pressing challenges faced by global societies in the 21st century, by studying interactions between technology and human & social sciences with a specific focus on the network society, e-learning and e-health.

Over 500 researchers and 52 research groups work among the University's seven faculties and two research centres: the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3) and the eHealth Center (eHC).

The University also cultivates online learning innovations at its eLearning Innovation Center (eLinC), as well as UOC community entrepreneurship and knowledge transfer via the Hubbik platform.

The United Nations' 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and open knowledge serve as strategic pillars for the UOC's teaching, research and innovation. More information: research.uoc.edu #UOC25years

UOC experts

Photograph of Rubén Nieto Luna

Rubén Nieto Luna

Expert in: Chronic pain research (assessment, risk factors and secondary prevention); development of online interventions for health problems (especially problems involving pain).

Knowledge area: Personality, psychological assessment and treatments, and health and the Internet.

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