Is there a relationship between child sexual abuse and chronic pain?

This study addresses the difference in incidence of child sexual abuse among female chronic pain patients and female chronic illness patients without chronic pain in an out-patient clinical setting. A structured interview including a sexual abuse questionnaire was administered to 60 adult female chronic pain patients at The Pain Management Center and to the control group of 60 adult female chronic illness patients at The Medicine Clinic in the Kentucky Clinic. Each patient was also administered the Multiscore Depression Inventory and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (Form Y). Thirty-seven percent of the chronic pain patients reported a history of child sexual abuse, while thirty-five percent of the chronic illness patients responded positively to questions about child sexual abuse. Depression and anxiety were significantly higher in the group of women reporting histories that included child sexual abuse than the non-abused group. Results do not support previous studies that have found a positive relationship between child sexual abuse and chronic pain. Results do support research that finds depression and anxiety as long-term sequelae of child sexual abuse. Variables related to pain sites, and to known or unknown etiology for pain may be more important than the chronicity factor.