Department of Psychology and Counselling, University of Greenwich, London, UK.
J Pain. 2011 Aug;12(8):849-58. doi: 10.1016/j.jpain.2011.01.004. Epub 2011 Apr 9.
Although previous research has examined whether the relative effects of distraction and sensory focusing on pain are dependent upon anxiety sensitivity, such research has concentrated primarily on females. Given the increasing emergence of sex differences in pain processing, the current study aimed to examine whether any influence of anxiety sensitivity on coping effectiveness differs for males and females. The sample consisted of 76 healthy adults (41 males and 35 females), all of whom received distraction and sensory-focusing instructions and underwent noxious thermal testing (cold and heat). Results showed that anxiety sensitivity was positively associated with the emotional qualities of cold pain, and that males exhibited significantly greater heat pain tolerance than females. In addition, within males, a significant coping × anxiety sensitivity effect was found for cold tolerance, with distraction superior to sensory focusing only when anxiety sensitivity was high. In females, however, distraction was a superior strategy irrespective of anxiety sensitivity.
This study highlights the importance of considering anxiety sensitivity and sex when examining the relative effectiveness of attentional pain coping strategies. This finding may be potentially beneficial to clinicians considering pain management interventions that include a cognitive or attentional component.
尽管先前的研究已经检验了分心和感官聚焦对疼痛的相对影响是否取决于焦虑敏感度，但此类研究主要集中在女性身上。鉴于疼痛处理中性别差异的日益显现，本研究旨在检验焦虑敏感度对男性和女性的应对效果是否存在任何影响。该样本由 76 名健康成年人（41 名男性和 35 名女性）组成，他们都接受了分心和感官聚焦的指导，并接受了疼痛刺激测试（冷和热）。结果表明，焦虑敏感度与冷痛的情绪质量呈正相关，且男性的热痛耐受力明显高于女性。此外，在男性中，冷耐受方面存在显著的应对方式×焦虑敏感度效应，仅当焦虑敏感度较高时，分心才优于感官聚焦。然而，在女性中，无论焦虑敏感度如何，分心都是一种更优的策略。
本研究强调了在检验注意力疼痛应对策略的相对有效性时，考虑焦虑敏感度和性别的重要性。这一发现可能对考虑包含认知或注意力成分的疼痛管理干预措施的临床医生具有潜在益处。
