FOC1CONSEQUENCES OF ALCOHOL CONSUMPTIONFOC1-1RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND PHYSICAL PAIN IN ALCOHOL-DEPENDENT PATIENTS ENTERING TREATMENT IN POLAND

Abstract

Current data shows that chronic pain is significant comorbidity in alcohol-dependent (AD) patients. A review of the current literature re-veals that emotional processing deficits are the substantial component of both AD and chronic pain. The present study was aimed at analyzing the interrelations between emotional intelligence and self-reported pain severity in AD patients. A sample of 103 participants were recruited from alcohol treatment center in Warsaw, Poland. Data concerning pain level in the last 4 weeks, impulsivity, social support, childhood abuse history, severity of current anxiety and depressive symptoms, as well as alcohol and sleep problems was obtained. The emotional intelligence was measured with the Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test. Ac-cording to the self-reported pain severity level, the study sample was divided into two groups "mild or no pain" and "moderate or greater pain". In the logistic regression model, across a constant set of socio-demographic, psychological, and clinical factors, higher self-reported emotion regulation, negative history of childhood abuse, higher education and lower severity of sleep problems predicted lower severity of self-reported pain during the last four weeks. When the mediation models looking at the association between current severity of anxiety and depressive symptoms (NA) and pain severity with the mediating role of emotion regulation were tested, emotion regulation appeared to fully mediate the relationship between depression severity and pain, and partially the relationship between anxiety severity and pain. The present findings extend the previous results indicating that emo-tion regulation deficits are related to the self-reported pain severity in AD patients.