Cross-Sectional Study

Background Attachment insecurity relates to the onset and course of chronic pain via dysfunctional reac-tions to pain. However, few studies have investigated the proportion of insecure attachment styles in different pain conditions, and results regarding associations between attachment, pain severity, and disability in chronic pain are inconsistent. This study aims to clarify the re-lationships between insecure attachment and occurrence or severity of chronic pain with and without clearly defined organic cause. To detect potential differences in the importance of global and romantic attachment representations, we included both concepts in our study. Methods 85 patients with medically unexplained musculoskeletal pain (UMP) and 89 patients with joint pain from osteoarthritis (OA) completed self-report measures of global and romantic at-tachment, pain intensity, physical functioning, and depression. Results Patients reporting global insecure attachment representations were more likely to suffe