Individual differences in momentary pain-affect coupling and their associations with mental health in patients with chronic pain.

OBJECTIVE

Pain and affect are generally associated. However, individuals may differ in the magnitude of the coupling between pain and affect, which may have important implications for their mental health. The present study uses ecological momentary assessments (EMA) to examine individual differences in momentary pain-affect coupling and their associations with depressive and anxiety symptoms.

METHODS

This study is a secondary data analysis of three primary EMA studies. Participants were a total of 290 patients with chronic pain. Results were synthesized across studies using meta-analytic techniques.

RESULTS

Individuals whose pain was more strongly concurrently coupled with affect (positively associated with negative affect or negatively associated with positive affect) reported higher levels of depressive and anxiety symptoms. Results from lagged analyses suggest that individual differences in affect reactivity to pain were not significantly associated with depressive or anxiety symptoms.

CONCLUSION

These findings suggest that individuals with greater concurrent coupling between pain and affect experience more mental health problems. Potential avenues for future research include intervention strategies that target the decoupling of pain and affect experiences in patients with chronic pain.