Dataset Information

Attentional, interpretation and memory biases for sensory-pain words in individuals with chronic headache.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Cognitive biases in attention, interpretation and less consistently memory have been observed in individuals with chronic pain and play a critical role in the onset and maintenance of chronic pain. Despite operating in combination cognitive biases are typically explored in isolation.

Aim

The primary aim of this study was to explore attentional, interpretation and memory biases and their interrelationship in individuals with chronic headache.

Methods

Twenty-eight participants with chronic headache and 34 healthy controls completed paradigms assessing attentional, interpretation and memory biases with ambiguous sensory-pain and neutral words.

Results

Individuals with chronic pain showed significantly greater pain-related attentional and interpretation biases relative to controls, with no differences in memory bias. No significant correlation was found between any of the three forms of cognitive bias assessed.

Discussion and conclusion

The clinical implications of cognitive biases in individuals with chronic pain remain to be fully explored, although one avenue for future research would be specific investigation of the implications of biased interpretations considering the consistency of results found across the literature for this form of bias.

SUBMITTER: Schoth DE

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6327358 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Attentional, interpretation and memory biases for sensory-pain words in individuals with chronic headache.

Schoth Daniel E DE Beaney Rebecca R Broadbent Philippa P Zhang Jin J Liossi Christina C

British journal of pain 20180720 1

<h4>Introduction</h4>Cognitive biases in attention, interpretation and less consistently memory have been observed in individuals with chronic pain and play a critical role in the onset and maintenance of chronic pain. Despite operating in combination cognitive biases are typically explored in isolation.<h4>Aim</h4>The primary aim of this study was to explore attentional, interpretation and memory biases and their interrelationship in individuals with chronic headache.<h4>Methods</h4>Twenty-eigh ...[more]

PMID: 30671235

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Project description:BackgroundChildren of chronic pain patients run greater risk for developing chronic pain themselves. Exposure to chronic pain of the parent might install cognitive (e.g., pain catastrophizing, interpretation and attentional bias) and affective (e.g., pain anxiety) vulnerability which increase the risk for the development of chronic pain complaints in offspring. This study examines whether pain-free offspring of parents with chronic pain complaints make more health-threatening interpretations and display a stronger pain-related attentional bias compared to the offspring of pain-free parents. We furthermore examined differences between both groups on pain catastrophizing, pain anxiety and somatic symptoms and explored the relations between parental pain catastrophizing and aforementioned pain vulnerability measures in offspring.MethodsOffspring of parents with chronic pain complaints (n = 24) and pain-free parents (n = 27) completed measures of attentional bias (i.e., pictorial dot probe), interpretation bias (i.e., ambiguous word association task), pain catastrophizing, pain anxiety and somatic symptoms. Parents completed measures of pain catastrophizing and psychological distress.ResultsNo differences between offspring of parents with and without pain complaints were observed on pain catastrophizing, pain anxiety and somatic symptoms. Both groups of healthy adolescents predominantly showed benign, non-health-threatening interpretations. Children of pain-free parents showed an attention bias for pain stimuli, while offspring of parents with pain complaints showed no such bias.ConclusionsFuture research is needed to further elucidate the precise role of parental pain in the development of pain-related biases and the significance of these biases in the onset and/or maintenance of a chronic pain condition in children and adolescents.SignificanceParental chronic pain may install psychological vulnerability for developing chronic pain and associated complaints in offspring. This study did not show differences in pain-directed attentional and interpretation bias between offspring of parents with chronic pain complaints and offspring of pain-free parents. Further (longitudinal) research is needed to elucidate the precise role of parental pain factors in the development of pain-related vulnerability in offspring of chronic pain parents, thereby identifying important targets for the prevention and early intervention of chronic pain.

Project description:Although the broad role of fear and hypervigilance in conditions of the gut-brain axis like irritable bowel syndrome is supported by converging evidence, the underlying mechanisms remain incompletely understood. Even in healthy individuals, it remains unclear how pain-related fear may contribute to pain-related attentional biases for acute visceral pain. Building on our classical fear conditioning work in a clinically relevant model of visceral pain, we herein elucidated pain-related attentional biases shaped by associative learning in healthy women and men, aiming to elucidate possible sex differences and the role of psychological traits. To this end, we compared the impact of differentially conditioned pain-predictive cues on attentional biases in healthy women and men. Sixty-four volunteers accomplished a visual dot-probe task and subsequently underwent pain-related fear conditioning where one visual cue (CS+) was contingently paired with a painful rectal distention (US) while another cue remained unpaired (CS-). During the following test phase, the dot-probe task was repeated to investigate changes in attentional biases in response to differentially valenced cues. While pain-related learning was comparable between groups, men revealed more pronounced attentional engagement with the CS+ and CS- whereas women demonstrated stronger difficulties to disengage from the CS+ when presented with a neutral cue. However, when both CS+ and CS- were presented together, women revealed stronger difficulties to disengage from the CS-. Regression analyses revealed an interaction of sex, with negative affect predicting stronger avoidance of the CS+ and stronger difficulties to disengage attention from the CS- in men. These results provide first evidence that pain-related fear conditioning may induce attentional biases differentially in healthy women and men. Hence, sex differences may play a role in attentional mechanisms underlying hypervigilance, and may be modulated by psychological vulnerability factors relevant to chronic visceral pain.

Dataset Information

Attentional, interpretation and memory biases for sensory-pain words in individuals with chronic headache.

Introduction

Aim

Methods

Results

Discussion and conclusion

Publications

Attentional, interpretation and memory biases for sensory-pain words in individuals with chronic headache.

Similar Datasets

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