School of Human & Health Sciences, Swansea University, UK.
Injury. 2011 Nov;42(11):1214-8. doi: 10.1016/j.injury.2010.07.245. Epub 2010 Aug 12.
Psychological factors are capable of influencing an individual's perception of pain and may mediate the evolution from acute to chronic pain. Personality characteristics, such as alexithymia and anxiety sensitivity, can also influence perception of pain by somatising psychological distress associated with acute pain. The aim of this study was to understand if alexithymia and anxiety sensitivity interact with psychological distress at an early stage of recovery from orthopaedic injury, to accentuate perception of pain intensity and potentially mediate the development of chronic pain disorder. 62 patients who had recently suffered orthopaedic injury completed the British Pain Society Pain Rating Scale plus the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, as well as measures of alexithymia and anxiety sensitivity. Pain intensity correlated with each of the psychological measures but a regression analysis found that only depression, in combination with anxiety sensitivity, contributed to a significant amount of the variance in pain scores. The authors suggest that early screening after orthopaedic injury could identify those vulnerable to developing persisting pain disorders. This could lead to effective early intervention using psychological methods of pain management to reduce the risk of acute pain evolving into a chronic pain disorder.
心理因素能够影响个体对疼痛的感知，并可能在急性疼痛向慢性疼痛的发展中起中介作用。人格特征，如述情障碍和焦虑敏感性，也可以通过躯体化与急性疼痛相关的心理困扰来影响疼痛的感知。本研究的目的是了解述情障碍和焦虑敏感性是否与骨科损伤康复早期的心理困扰相互作用，从而加重疼痛强度的感知，并可能介导慢性疼痛障碍的发展。62 名最近遭受骨科损伤的患者完成了英国疼痛协会疼痛评分量表和医院焦虑和抑郁量表，以及述情障碍和焦虑敏感性的测量。疼痛强度与每个心理测量都相关，但回归分析发现，只有抑郁，加上焦虑敏感性，对疼痛评分的变化有显著的贡献。作者建议，在骨科损伤后早期进行筛查，可以识别出那些容易发展为持续性疼痛障碍的人。这可能会导致使用疼痛管理的心理方法进行有效的早期干预，以降低急性疼痛发展为慢性疼痛障碍的风险。
