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Characterizing The Role Of Psychological Stress In The Development Of Persistent Pain, Katherine M. Bernier Carney

Doctoral Dissertations

Persistent pain is a complex experience that can be difficult to treat if there is no obvious source. Nurses caring for patients with chronic pain may rely on pain severity to direct care, although this does not address the biopsychosocial factors that influence persistent pain states. Psychological stress is a potentially modifiable factor that has been proposed to influence the experience of pain, but the role of stress in developing persistent pain states remains undefined. The purpose of this dissertation was to examine stress-pain relationships by investigating how stress influences chronic pain trajectories. To address this query, three perspectives are …