The Role of Resilience in Patients’ Perception of Herniated Lumbar Intervertebral Discs

AIMS: Individuals with herniated discs can have a wide variety of clinical presentations, ranging from asymptomatic to severe spinal cord compression and pain. Perceptions the general public hold regarding the consequences of disc herniation are currently unknown. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to assess the general population’s current views regarding lumbar disc herniations in order to better understand patient perceptions regarding herniated discs and the factors that may influence them. DESIGN: A hybrid survey of original questions and existing scales was developed for this study. Questions included demographic, medical history, and perceptions of disc herniation inquiries, as well as the entirety of the Brief Resilient Coping Scale (BRCS) and Brief Resilience Scale (BRS) scales. Data analysis was performed via JASP. RESULTS: A key finding of this study was that resilience plays a major role in participant’s views on herniated intervertebral discs (p=0.040). Participants with greater resilience levels had views on disc herniations that were more consistent with the findings in the literature (p=0.018). CONCLUSION: This may implicate low resilience levels in negative catastrophizing, which can impair the recovery process for patients. Due to this, healthcare providers should further consider a patient’s mental characteristics such as resilience and coping style when discussing implications of this potential diagnosis.