Sex differences in pain drawing area for individuals with chronic musculoskeletal pain

Study Design Cross-sectional. Objectives To (1) determine the association between pain severity and pain drawing area for men and women; (2) determine if sex differences exist in pain severity or pain drawing area; (3) determine the relative influence of pain severity, anatomical location of pain, personality, and psychological coping factors on pain drawing area for men and women. Background Pain drawings have been postulated to assist in clinical decision making regarding classification and treatment of musculoskeletal pain. Prior studies have been ambiguous on this topic, possibly because they have not considered if sex differences exist for pain drawing area. Methods and Measures One hundred twenty-six subjects referred to a multidisciplinary chronic pain clinic with chronic musculoskeletal pain were included in this study. Subjects completed a pain drawing, the Multidimensional Pain Inventory (MPI), the Coping Strategies Questionnaire (CSQ), and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2...