Abstract
Chronic pain is a serious public health problem that has grown exponentially in recent years, which is why it has received the attention of numerous researchers. Most of the studies in the field of chronic pain have focused on care as a mediating variable on the perception of painful stimuli and emotions. Nevertheless, there are very few studies that have gone in the opposite direction. This study's aim is therefore to analyse the impact of emotional variables (anxiety and depression), the rating of pain, and age on vigilance processes in a sample of patients with chronic pain. To do so, the attentional performance of a cohort of 52 patients with chronic pain was measured through the use of a modified dot-probe task. Furthermore, all the participants were evaluated using the following self-report measures: Beck's Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), the McGill Pain Questionnaire, and the Pain Anxiety Symptoms Scale-20 (PASS-20). Stepwise multiple linear regression analysis revealed a significant negative correlation between the pain rating index and the number of mistakes the participants made during the attention test. There was also a positive and significant correlation with age and another negative and significant correlation with cognitive anxiety regarding the overall performance times during the undertaking of the experimental task. These results point to the importance of a more in-depth understanding of the impact that the emotional variables and other variables such as age have on attentional processes and the rating of pain. Finally, the discussion focuses on the implications these results could have for clinical practice or for future research studies in this field.
Highlights
Most researchers in the field have focused on care in their studies as a mediating variable on modulation in the perception of painful stimuli [15,16,17,18,19,20], we have evidence to show that high levels of anxiety regarding pain makes patients more mindful of the physical symptoms; in other words, it prompts adopting a state of hypervigilance towards pain or towards any painful stimulus [14]. is hypervigilance towards pain has consistently been associated with higher levels of sensitivity and the perception
We know that pain becomes more prevalent with age [25, 26]. ere are scholars that refer to age as a variable that could modify the rating of pain and alter the cognitive performance in patients with chronic pain [27,28,29]
Most of the participants had been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. e average age was 54.79. e inclusion criteria were that the patients had received a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, or low back pain, they were over the age of 18, and they took part on a voluntary basis
Summary
Chronic pain has become a serious public health problem that has grown exponentially in recent years, becoming the most common symptom among patients attending hospital services [1]. is is due to its high rates of prevalence [2], and to the impact this health problem has on a patient’s wellbeing, their family, healthcare costs, the loss of productivity at work, and the high socioeconomic costs for the health system (both direct and indirect) [3, 4].Today, its conceptualisation is understood based on “Gate Control” theory [5], which permits an approach to the concept of pain from a multidimensional model that explains its sensorial dimension, and its cognitive and emotional dimension [6]. is has played a vital role in understanding the contribution and importance of psychological variables in the perception of pain. Most scholars coincide in noting that psychological factors such as anxiety, stress, depression, and anger play a key part in both perceiving and coping with pain, which is why it tends to be a priority goal in most interventions in the field [7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14] Along these lines, most researchers in the field have focused on care in their studies as a mediating variable on modulation in the perception of painful stimuli [15,16,17,18,19,20], we have evidence to show that high levels of anxiety regarding pain makes patients more mindful of the physical symptoms; in other words, it prompts adopting a state of hypervigilance towards pain or towards any painful stimulus [14]. It may be described as a variable that needs to be taken into account in the relationship between the rating of pain and the cognitive function, there is clearly a paucity of studies that have addressed this issue
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