The relationship between Emotion Regulation and Metacognitive Beliefs Regarding Pain Management in Patient with Chronic Headache

Introduction: The purpose of this research is investigating the relationship between emotion regulation and metacognitive beliefs with pain management in patient with chronic headache and also determining the role of those variables in relieving the pain.
Method: 100 patients, residing in Tehran, who had diagnosed for chronic headache by a specialist, were selected by convenience sampling as the population of this study. They were asked to fill in the following questionnaire: Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ), Metacognitive Belief Questionnaire and Mc Gill pain questionnaire.
Results: The result showed all cognitive-emotion factors are significantly related to pain management strategies. Positive cognitive-emotion regulation factors (such as acceptance, positive re-focus, and focus on planning, positive reassessment and perspective taking) and negative cognitive-emotion regulation factors (such as self-blaming, rumination, catastrophic considering and blaming others) have significant negative and positive relationship with pain management method, respectively. Negative metacognitive belief factors (uncontrollability and risk and need to control the thought) have a positive relationship with pain variables. Self-awareness cognitive factor, among positive metacognitive belief factors, has a negative relationship with pain variables. According to stepwise regression, rumination has more predictive potential among cognitive emotion regulation and metacognitive belief variables.
Discussion and Conclusion: The results of this research support the view that cognitive emotion regulation and metacognitive belief components are effective in pain management.