Canaipa Rita, Treister Roi, Lang Magdalena, Moreira João M, Castro-Caldas Alexandre
*Faculty of Medicine §Faculty of Psychology, University of Lisbon, Lisbon †Health Science Institute, Portuguese Catholic University, Lisbon, Portugal ‡Nerve Injury Unit, Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston.
Clin J Pain. 2016 Jan;32(1):14-9. doi: 10.1097/AJP.0000000000000220.
Social distress, resulting from loss or threat to social relationships, shares similar psychological and neuronal processes with physical pain. Recent evidence demonstrated that social distress may have an impact on pain. The current study aimed to further assess the relationship between these 2 phenomena.
Sixty healthy participants were randomly assigned to inclusion, noninclusion, or exclusion conditions of Cyberball, a virtual ball tossing game used to induce social distress. Pain and unpleasantness in response to noxious electrical stimuli were assessed before and after Cyberball manipulation. Psychological characteristics were evaluated by the Experiences in Close Relationships Questionnaire and the neuroticism scale of Big Five Inventory.
Significant correlations were found between social distress and pre-Cyberball unpleasantness thresholds: those who perceived the Cyberball task as more distressing demonstrated lower unpleasantness thresholds. Post-Cyberball manipulation pain intensity ratings, but not unpleasantness ratings, were lower in the inclusion condition. No associations were found between the psychological characteristic and the effects of Cyberball on pain or unpleasantness ratings.
The current study results indicate that participants' pre-Cyberball unpleasantness threshold is related to their responsiveness to social distress and that physical pain may be modulated by social events. Further studies are needed to clarify the clinical relevance of these results.
社会痛苦是由社会关系的丧失或威胁所导致的，它与身体疼痛有着相似的心理和神经过程。最近的证据表明，社会痛苦可能会对疼痛产生影响。本研究旨在进一步评估这两种现象之间的关系。
60名健康参与者被随机分配到“赛博球”（一种用于诱发社会痛苦的虚拟抛球游戏）的被接纳、未被接纳或被排斥情境中。在“赛博球”操作前后，对有害电刺激引发的疼痛和不适感进行评估。通过亲密关系经历问卷和大五人格量表中的神经质分量表对心理特征进行评估。
发现社会痛苦与“赛博球”操作前的不适阈值之间存在显著相关性：那些认为“赛博球”任务更令人痛苦的参与者表现出更低的不适阈值。在被接纳情境中，“赛博球”操作后的疼痛强度评分降低，但不适评分未降低。未发现心理特征与“赛博球”对疼痛或不适评分的影响之间存在关联。
本研究结果表明，参与者在“赛博球”操作前的不适阈值与其对社会痛苦的反应性有关，并且身体疼痛可能会受到社会事件的调节。需要进一步的研究来阐明这些结果的临床相关性。
