Effect of Pain Coping Skills Training on Pain and Pain Medication Use for Women With Breast Cancer

Pain is distressing for women with breast cancer. Pain medication may not provide full relief and can have negative side-effects. Cognitive-behavioral pain intervention protocols reduce pain severity and improve self-efficacy for pain management. These interventions’ impact on pain medication use is less clear. Intervention length and coping skills use might play a role in pain outcomes. Secondary analysis to examine differences in pain severity, pain medication use, pain self-efficacy, and coping skill use after five- and one-session cognitive-behavioral pain intervention protocols. Pain self-efficacy and coping skills use were assessed as mediators of intervention effects on pain and pain medication use. Women (N = 327) with stage I–III breast cancer were enrolled in a randomized trial comparing individually-delivered, five- and one-session pain coping skills training (PCST). Pain severity, pain medication use, pain self-efficacy, and coping skills use were assessed preintervention and five to eight weeks later (postintervention). Pain and pain medication use significantly decreased, while pain self-efficacy increased pre-post for women randomized to both conditions (P's