Attentional bias for pain- and period-related symptom words in healthy women who experienced a recent painful period.

BACKGROUND

Attentional biases for pain-related information have been commonly reported in patients with chronic pain. Biases may also exist in individuals who recently experienced an episode of acute clinical pain, although limited investigation has been conducted. The present study is the first to explore attentional biases in women who experienced recent menstrual pain.

METHODS

Seventy healthy women were recruited who experienced a regular menstrual cycle and a recent painful period. All participants completed a visual-probe task with pain-related and period-related symptom words, which were presented at subliminal (14 ms, followed by nonsensical consonant letter string for 286 ms) and supraliminal (300 ms, 1250 ms) exposure durations. Participants then completed a series of self-report measures, including a measure of cyclical perimenstrual symptoms.

RESULTS

Recent menstrual pain severity was found to be significantly predictive of attentional bias towards pain-related words presented for 1250 ms. However, no significant evidence of bias was found towards period-related symptom words.

CONCLUSIONS

Pain-related attentional biases are associated with recent menstrual pain severity. The experience and severity of pain, rather than its duration (i.e., whether pain is chronic or acute), may be the primary determinants of pain-related attentional bias. Future research could explore attentional biases in acute clinical pain samples to confirm this notion.