Chronic pain, BPD and emotion regulation in UK prisoners V1.0
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Chronic pain, borderline personality disorder and emotion regulation in UK prisoners
IRAS ID
300337
Contact name
Kate Leech
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Staffordshire University
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 6 months, 1 days
Research summary
Previous research has found that borderline personality disorder is higher in patients with chronic pain (Sansone & Sansone, 2012), and in particular, difficulties with emotion regulation (a symptom of BPD) has been linked to chronic pain (Reynolds et al., 2018). This has not yet been explored with prisoner, which may be different to the general population as prisoners tend to have a higher level of personality disorder than in the general population (Fazel and Baillargeon, 2011).
Managing chronic pain in prisons can be problematic due to issues such as addiction, risk of overdose and drug trading in pharmacological treatment (Pain Management Formulary for Prisons, NHS England, 2017). There may also be lack of opportunities for interventions known to improve pain such as physical activity (Geneen et al., 2017), as prisoners may have restricted access to the means to be more active.
The present study will investigate whether there is an association between chronic pain and borderline personality disorder features in UK prisoners, and whether this is mediated by emotion regulation.
The research hypotheses are that a) borderline personality disorder features will predict pain severity and pain impact on daily life; b) the relationship between borderline personality disorder features and the two pain outcomes (pain severity and pain impact on daily life) will be mediated by emotion regulation.
Chronic pain patients in 4 UK prisons in Surrey (HMP Send, HMP Coldingley, HMP High Down, HMP Downview) will be invited to complete the study.
Questionnaires will be completed by the participants including the Personality Assessment Inventory – Borderline Scale (PAIBOR) measuring BPD features, the Brief Pain Inventory measuring chronic pain severity and chronic pain functioning and the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) measuring emotion regulation. The results will be analysed to determine if BPD features predict chronic pain severity and functioning, and if these relationships are mediated by emotion regulation.
REC name
East of England - Essex Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
21/EE/0141
Date of REC Opinion
9 Aug 2021
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion