Differential effects of everyday-life social support on chronic pain

Social support is a multidimensional construct encompassing emotional support as well as pain-focused care and attention, also known as solicitous support. One the one hand, social support is widely believed to positively influence pain symptoms, their intensity, and the ability to cope and influence pain. On the other hand, social support can be negative if it conflicts with the patient’s needs or even causes discomfort. How different types of social support influence pain is not very well understood especially because most of the present research originates from laboratory studies, raising uncertainties about its generalizability to the everyday life of individuals with chronic pain.

Here, we tested the effects of emotional, solicitous, and negative social support on pain intensity cross-sectionally in everyday life. We collected data from 20 patients with acute complex regional pain syndrome using a smartphone-based Ecological Momentary Assessment with up to 30 survey prompts over a period of five consecutive days.

Our results showed that solicitous social support decreased pain, in particular in male patients. Emotional support was beneficial on pain in women but not in men.

Taken together, these findings highlight the differential effects of social support in every-day life on chronic pain.