Roles of childhood maltreatment, resilience and sleep disturbances on quality of life in chronic pain

BackgroundAround one in five persons globally reports experiencing chronic pain. Chronic pain can lead to sleep disturbances, reduced resilience to chronic stressors, and quality of life. Exposure to childhood maltreatment is a risk factor for chronic pain that also reduces resilience abilities. However, the relationship between childhood maltreatment, resilience and sleep disturbance on quality of life in people with chronic pain remain poorly understood. MethodsTwo hundred and forty-one participants were included in this study, including 157 people with and 84 without chronic pain (controls). All participants responded to an online survey that included measures of childhood maltreatment, resilience, sleep disturbances and quality of life. A moderated serial mediation model tested how resilience and sleep disturbances mediate the relationship between group and quality of life, and how the severity of childhood maltreatment moderates the group difference in resilience. ResultsParticipants with chronic pain reported significantly lower quality of life than controls. This group difference in quality of life was significantly mediated by the level of resilience and sleep disturbance when people reported being exposed to low and average, but not high levels of childhood maltreatment. ConclusionsThe study found that exposure to childhood maltreatment reduced resilience abilities leading to more severe sleep problems and lower quality of life in participants with chronic pain. These findings suggest that interventions targeting childhood maltreatment and resilience may be beneficial to improve quality of life, through increased sleep quality, in individuals with chronic pain.