THU0537 Association between big five personality traits and response to multidisciplinary program in patients with chronic low back pain: a prospective study

Abstract

Background: Chronic back pain is a multifactorial condition, which cannot be thoroughly addressed without understanding the psychological factors that influence its onset, maintenance and the response to its management. Patient attitudes and personality traits often determine how they experience pain, how they adjust to it, and their response to the different management strategies. Objective(s): This study aimed to identify whether patients with specific Big Five personality traits are more likely to seek medical care, and to uncover whether there is an association between personality and the patient's response to multidisciplinary functional rehabilitation program. Method(s): 97 patients (57% male) aged 41.1 (10.1) with chronic low back pain, enrolling in an intensive 4 week multidisciplinary functional rehabilitation program, completed the NEO Personality Inventory-Revised (NEO PI-R) at baseline. Outcome was assessed at treatment admission and discharge, and at 6 months follow up, including Core Outcome Measure Index (COMI), Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia (TSK), Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Result(s): Both men and women had significantly lower scores in the Openness to Experience domain and significantly higher scores in the Conscientiousness domain than the average general population. At baseline, Neuroticism was found to correlate positively with TSK and HADS. Low Openness to Experience, and low Extraversion correlated with high HADS at baseline as well. Analysis of the follow up data showed a significant reduction in the COMI, ODI, HADS and TSK at the end of the program, and at 6 months follow up. There was no correlation between the improvement in COMI, ODI or TSK scores after 6 months and any of the 5 domains of the NEO PI-R Conclusion(s): Low Openness to Experience and high Conscientiousness seem to be key factors of chronicity in patients with low back pain. Significant decrease in pain, disability as well as depressive and anxious moods showed that these patients were effectively treated by the multidisciplinary functional rehabilitation program regardless of their personality traits.