Solicitousness and chronic pain: a critical review

Abstract

This article offers a critical review of the literature examining spouse responses to the pain behaviour of chronic pain patients. An overview is given of 27 studies that have explored patient‐ spouse interactions in chronic pain, together with a summary of the various e ndings. It is concluded that the body of research is broadly supportive of the operant behavioural paradigm on which it has developed. Patients’ coping with chronic pain is signie cantly ine uenced by the ways in which those closest to them respond to their expressions of discomfort. However, it is argued that the behavioural model alone is insufe cient when accounting for the complexity of pain couples’ interactions. The impact of the spouse’ s response is mediated by a range of cognitive and affective variables that have yet to be fully recognized in the research literature. It is also argued that the operationalization of the construct of solicitousness, which is central to research on chronic pain couples, is e awed. A number of suggestions for future theoretical and empirical developments in this area are made.