Abstract

Chronic pain is associated with high levels of mental health issues and alterations in cognitive processing. Cognitive-behavioral models illustrate the role of memory alterations (e.g., autobiographical memory and future thinking) in the development and maintenance of chronic pain as well as in mental health disorders which frequently co-occur with chronic pain (e.g., anxiety and mood disorders). This study aims to expand our understanding of specific cognitive mechanisms underlying chronic pain which may in turn shed light on cognitive processes underlying pain-related psychological distress. Individuals (N = 84) who reported a history of chronic pain and individuals who reported no history of chronic pain (N = 102) were recruited from MTurk to complete an online survey including standardized measures of anxiety and depression and two sentence completion tasks that assessed autobiographical memory and future thinking specificity and content. Chi square analyses revealed that participants who endorsed experiencing chronic pain were significantly more likely to recall at least one painful and negative event and to imagine at least one anticipated painful event in their future. Two ANCOVAs were performed to examine the degree to which chronic pain endorsement influenced specificity in memory and future imagining. Individuals with a history of chronic pain and higher levels of depression symptom severity generated autobiographical memories with significantly less specificity; whereas, individuals with a history of chronic pain also generated future autobiographical events with significantly less specificity. In addition, individuals with a history of chronic pain were more likely to generate episodes related to pain when asked to recall the past or imagine the future. Further research is needed to improve our understanding of the etiology of autobiographical memory and future thinking specificity and content in the pathogenesis of mental health conditions in the context of chronic pain.

Highlights

  • It is widely recognized that chronic pain is a global health concern diminishing the wellbeing and functioning of diverse populations

  • The groups did not differ in gender (p > 0.05), but the group of individuals with a history of chronic pain were older (MChronicPain = 43.30, MControl = 38.79, p < 0.01) and reported higher scores on Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) (p < 0.01) and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) (p < 0.01) than non-chronic pain group

  • In line with the bulk of previous research, this study found that individuals with chronic pain demonstrated alterations in autobiographical memory recall and future event imagining

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Summary

Introduction

It is widely recognized that chronic pain is a global health concern diminishing the wellbeing and functioning of diverse populations. A variety of treatments have shown promise in reducing pain severity and subjective distress. Clinical trials have indicated that CBT alone or in conjunction with pharmacological interventions have been shown to reduce pain and pain-related distress (Hoffman et al, 2007). CBT appears has been shown improve quality of life and activities of daily living among diverse forms of pain, including headache, facial pain, and fibromyalgia (Morley et al, 1999; Hoffman et al, 2007; Wetherell et al, 2011). Untreated or poorly treated chronic pain has been associated with a wide range of negative outcomes, including overall poor health, functional impairment, and lower levels of quality of life (Phillips, 2009; Prefontaine and Rochette, 2013). Research aimed at the characterization and identification of mechanisms associated with chronic pain may help to better elucidate the syndrome and inform effective treatments

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