Readiness to adopt a self-management approach to pain: evaluation of the pain stages of change model in a non-pain-clinic sample

The Transtheoretical model of stages of behaviour change has stimulated research interest in relation to chronic pain, yet studies using the Pain Stages of Change Questionnaire (PSOCQ; Pain (72) 1997 227) have reported inconsistent findings and have generally utilized pain-clinic samples. The aims of the current study were to assess the general validity of the PSOCQ with a non-pain-clinic sample of patients with chronic pain, and to examine the utility of the stages of change model as applied to this population. The study employed multi-stage, cluster-sampling methodology, with 90 participants recruited from 19 medical and allied health clinics and practices. The findings demonstrated a number of limitations of the PSOCQ in terms of its ability to classify individuals into specific stages of change. The stages of change model requires adaptation in order to be useful for treatment planning in a non-pain-clinic sample of patients with chronic pain.