The relationship between metacognition, anger, and pain intensity among fibromyalgia patients: a serial mediation model

ABSTRACT

Fibromyalgia is a burdensome pain causing patients a very negative emotional state that can worsen their clinical profile, perceived disability, and treatment outcomes. In particular, anger can negatively affect pain and patient adjustment to the disease. Recent studies suggest that metacognitions and anger rumination can negatively affect anger, which in turn can amplify the intensity of pain. This study aims to investigate whether anger rumination and state anger serially mediate the relationship between metacognitions and the intensity of pain. The study included 446 subjects who: declared having received a fibromyalgia diagnosis by a rheumatologist/pain physician; completed measures of metacognitions, anger rumination, state-anger, and pain intensity. The serial mediation analysis was conducted using Hayes’ PROCESS macro (Model 6). Negative beliefs about worry and beliefs about the need to control thoughts indirectly influenced the intensity of pain through two significant mediating pathways: state-anger and anger rumination to state-anger. Cognitive self-consciousness affected pain intensity directly (β = .11, p < .05) and indirectly through two significant mediating pathways: state-anger and anger rumination to state-anger. This study highlights the role of serial mediation of anger rumination and state-anger in the relationship between metacognitions and pain intensity in the field of fibromyalgia. Our work introduces new targets for anger management interventions for patients with fibromyalgia. Such interventions could be effectively addressed with a metacognitive approach considering its specific focus on dysfunctional metacognitive beliefs and repetitive negative thinking.

KEYWORDS:

• Fibromyalgia
• pain intensity
• metacognitive beliefs
• anger rumination
• anger
• mediation

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Dr. Gabriele Caselli and Dr. Alessia Offredi for their constructive feedback on the manuscript. The authors warmly thank also CFU-Italia Odv and all the fibromyalgia patients who kindly participated in the online survey.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.