(156) The Effect of Pain Resilience on Pain Experience: Does Stimulus Matter?

Abstract

Psychological research on pain has primarily focused on factors that confer vulnerability to pain-related outcomes; however, the past fifteen years has seen an increase in studies investigating factors that confer resilience to pain outcomes. One such factor is pain resilience, the ability to maintain behavioral engagement and regulate emotions as well as cognitions despite intense or prolonged pain. A weakness in not only the pain resilience literature, but pain research in general, has been the lack of rationale behind the selection of experimental pain stimuli. These pain stimuli can activate different nociceptive fibers, meaning that stimuli are not interchangeable. The present study sought to investigate whether the relationship between pain resilience and pain intensity differed between stimuli. Participants (N = 99, 60.6% female) completed a battery of questionnaires, including the Pain Resilience Scale and Pain Catastrophizing Scale, and then rated their pain continuously on a scale from 0 (“no pain”) to 100 (“worst pain imaginable”) during three pain stimuli that were selected based on the nociceptors that they stimulate: pinprick (primarily Aδ fibers), cold water immersion (Aδ and C fibers), and ischemic tourniquet (primarily C fibers). Mixed models including stimulus type, sex, pain resilience, pain catastrophizing, and time were developed, with a quadratic model creating the best fit to the data. This analysis found that the relationship between pain resilience and pain ratings over time differed across stimuli, F(2, 41,044) = 111.4, p < 0.001. Post-hoc analyses found that pain resilience was negatively related to pain ratings during the pinprick and cold water immersion tasks, but positively related to pain ratings during the ischemic task. This study provides preliminary evidence for different relationships between pain resilience and pain ratings for different pain types and provides additional support for the use of multiple stimuli when conducting experimental pain research. Psychological research on pain has primarily focused on factors that confer vulnerability to pain-related outcomes; however, the past fifteen years has seen an increase in studies investigating factors that confer resilience to pain outcomes. One such factor is pain resilience, the ability to maintain behavioral engagement and regulate emotions as well as cognitions despite intense or prolonged pain. A weakness in not only the pain resilience literature, but pain research in general, has been the lack of rationale behind the selection of experimental pain stimuli. These pain stimuli can activate different nociceptive fibers, meaning that stimuli are not interchangeable. The present study sought to investigate whether the relationship between pain resilience and pain intensity differed between stimuli. Participants (N = 99, 60.6% female) completed a battery of questionnaires, including the Pain Resilience Scale and Pain Catastrophizing Scale, and then rated their pain continuously on a scale from 0 (“no pain”) to 100 (“worst pain imaginable”) during three pain stimuli that were selected based on the nociceptors that they stimulate: pinprick (primarily Aδ fibers), cold water immersion (Aδ and C fibers), and ischemic tourniquet (primarily C fibers). Mixed models including stimulus type, sex, pain resilience, pain catastrophizing, and time were developed, with a quadratic model creating the best fit to the data. This analysis found that the relationship between pain resilience and pain ratings over time differed across stimuli, F(2, 41,044) = 111.4, p < 0.001. Post-hoc analyses found that pain resilience was negatively related to pain ratings during the pinprick and cold water immersion tasks, but positively related to pain ratings during the ischemic task. This study provides preliminary evidence for different relationships between pain resilience and pain ratings for different pain types and provides additional support for the use of multiple stimuli when conducting experimental pain research.