Psychology

Pain and other somatosensory sensations, such as itch, can be effectively decreased by placebo effects and increased by nocebo effects. There are indications that placebo effects on pain generalize to other sensations and that nocebo effects generalize within itch modalities. However, it has not yet been investigated whether learned effects can generalize within pain stimulus modalities or from pain to itch. Our aims were to test whether placebo and nocebo effects can generalize within pain modalities, i.e., from heat pain to pressure pain, and across somatosensory sensations with psychophysiological similarities, i.e., from heat pain to cowhage-evoked itch. For this purpose, sixty-five healthy participants were randomized to either a placebo or nocebo group. All participants firstly underwent a conditioning and verbal suggestion procedure with heat pain stimuli. Subsequently, responses to heat pain, pressure pain, and cowhage-evoked itch stimuli were tested. Results showed that altered levels of heat and pressure pain with the conditioned cue in both placebo and nocebo groups in the expected directions, but no significant difference in itch in both groups. In conclusion, placebo and nocebo effects on pain may generalize within but not across stimulus modalities. This study provides a novel perspective on the role that response generalization plays in physical symptoms.

Fibromyalgia (FM) is a chronic condition characterized by widespread muscular or musculoskeletal pain of at least 3 months' duration, occurring above and below the waist, on both sides of the body.

Yoga is a meditative movement therapy focused on mind-body awareness. The impact of yoga on health-related quality of life (HRQOL) outcomes in patients with chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) is unclear.

Interdisciplinary pain rehabilitation (IPR) usually employs a cognitive-behavioural therapeutic (CBT) approach. However, there is growing support for chronic pain treatments based on acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). Most studies of ACT and CBT for chronic pain have evaluated their effects after psychological interventions, not after IPR. We compared the results of an ACT-based IPR programme with two CBT-based IPR programmes.

Interdisciplinary treatment (IDT) is an internationally recommended intervention for chronic pain, despite inconclusive evidence of its effects on sickness absence.

Youth with functional abdominal pain (FAP) experience significant pain-related distress and functional impairment. Although quantitative sensory testing protocols have identified alterations in pain modulatory systems that distinguish youth with FAP from healthy controls, the extent to which evoked pain responses predict subsequent trajectories of pain symptoms and disability over and above established psychosocial risk factors is unclear.

Recent evidence suggests that pain dampens attentional processes. However, much of this work has been based on higher-order attentional tasks that involve only spatial attention. Other aspects of the process through which pain engages and holds attention are relatively understudied, in particular, temporal attention. The present set of studies explored how naturally occurring pain (i.e., acute headache) and pain-valenced stimuli affect ability to recall the second of two targets presented in rapid succession. Across both experiments participants were required to indicate the presence of a predefined probe (T2) and, in the dual task, identify a target (T1). The probe (T2) was placed in three different temporal proximities (ranging from 70ms to 1000ms) following presentation of the target (T1). In experiment 1, thirty-six participants completed a task that comprised a rapid stream of letters. Experiment 2 manipulated the threat value, and the complexity, of the stimuli by replacing letters with words. In the dual task condition, T1 was a word from one of four affect categories (neutral, positive, negative, pain). Being in acute pain reduced the accuracy of identification. This reduction in performance occurred regardless of the temporal positioning of the probe consistent with previous work that suggests pain has an overall dampening effect. Further, when the affect category of the word was pain-related, T2 accuracy performance was negatively affected. These findings add to the previous evidence that pain has a general dampening effect on attention and that pain-related stimuli are difficult to disengage from.