Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality, Southwest University, Chongqing, China.
Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China.
Eur J Pain. 2020 Jul;24(6):1084-1093. doi: 10.1002/ejp.1553. Epub 2020 Mar 20.
The association between fear of pain (FOP) and pain intensity has remained unclear. This study aimed to examine whether highly pain-fearful participants showed pain perceptual biases to general painful stimulus or to specific threatening painful stimulus.
Fifty-nine undergraduates were recruited into low (n = 30) and high (n = 29) FOP groups and completed a threatening pain perception task with two tasks. Task 1 assessed pain perceptual biases by calculating the percentage of near-threshold pain stimulus judged as painful and assessing the average pain intensity ratings to those painful stimuli. Task 2 assessed pain perceptual biases by measuring pain ratings to each single threshold (low intensity) and twice-threshold (high intensity) pain stimulus.
Results from task 1 indicated that higher FOP levels were associated with higher pain sensitivity when pain was appraised as a threat, reflected as high FOP group reporting higher pain intensity to those stimuli judged as painful in high threat condition than in low threat condition. Consistently, results from task 2 observed that when noxious stimulus intensity increased to threshold pain and twice threshold pain levels, high FOP group also generally reported higher pain intensity in high threat condition than in low threat condition. However, for both tasks, no such threat level differences were observed in low FOP group.
The current research emphasized that participants with higher FOP level showed pain perceptual biases to specific threatening painful stimulus. Threat appraisal of pain played a key role in the positive association between pain-related fear and pain perceptual biases.
The findings highlight the modulatory influence of threat appraisal of pain in the positive association between pain-related fear and pain perceptual biases.
恐惧疼痛（FOP）与疼痛强度之间的关系尚不清楚。本研究旨在检验高度疼痛恐惧的参与者是否对一般疼痛刺激或特定威胁性疼痛刺激表现出疼痛知觉偏差。
招募了 59 名本科生，分为低 FOP 组（n=30）和高 FOP 组（n=29），并完成了带有两个任务的威胁性疼痛知觉任务。任务 1 通过计算判定为疼痛的近阈疼痛刺激的百分比和评估对这些疼痛刺激的平均疼痛强度评分来评估疼痛知觉偏差。任务 2 通过测量每个单阈值（低强度）和双阈值（高强度）疼痛刺激的疼痛评分来评估疼痛知觉偏差。
任务 1 的结果表明，当疼痛被评估为威胁时，较高的 FOP 水平与较高的疼痛敏感性相关，表现为高 FOP 组在高威胁条件下对那些被判定为疼痛的刺激报告的疼痛强度高于低威胁条件。同样，任务 2 的结果观察到，当疼痛刺激强度增加到阈疼痛和双阈疼痛水平时，高 FOP 组在高威胁条件下也普遍报告比低威胁条件更高的疼痛强度。然而，在低 FOP 组中，两种任务都没有观察到这种威胁水平差异。
本研究强调，较高 FOP 水平的参与者对特定的威胁性疼痛刺激表现出疼痛知觉偏差。疼痛的威胁评估在疼痛相关恐惧与疼痛知觉偏差之间的正相关中起着关键作用。
研究结果强调了疼痛威胁评估在疼痛相关恐惧与疼痛知觉偏差之间的正相关中的调节作用。
