Macdonald B, Salomons T V, Meteyard L, Whalley M G
Department of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, UK.
Berkshire Traumatic Stress Service, Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, Reading, UK.
Can J Pain. 2018 Feb 21;2(1):48-56. doi: 10.1080/24740527.2018.1435994. eCollection 2018.
Flashbacks are a form of multisensory memory that are experienced with a "happening in the present" quality. Pain flashbacks are a re-experiencing of pain felt at the time of a traumatic event. It is unclear how common pain flashbacks are.
The current study was designed primarily to assess the prevalence of pain flashbacks in a sample of patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
We assessed the prevalence of pain flashbacks over a period of 2 years in patients ( = 166) referred to a psychological trauma service in the UK. Patients underwent a clinical screen for PTSD and completed a self-report measure of pain flashbacks.
Pain flashbacks were classified as present in 49% of a sample of complex trauma patients meeting criteria for PTSD. Pain flashbacks were positively associated with the extent of pain at the time of trauma.
Pain re-experiencing in PTSD, and its relative absence in nonclinical populations, supports an account of memory in which perceptual details can be re-experienced when memories have been encoded under conditions of extreme stress. It may be possible to conceptualize some cases of unexplained pain as pain flashbacks or of having a trauma origin.
闪回是一种多感官记忆形式，具有“当下正在发生”的特质。疼痛闪回是对创伤事件发生时所感受到的疼痛的再次体验。目前尚不清楚疼痛闪回的普遍程度如何。
本研究主要旨在评估创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）患者样本中疼痛闪回的患病率。
我们对转诊至英国一家心理创伤服务机构的166名患者，在两年时间内评估了疼痛闪回的患病率。患者接受了PTSD临床筛查，并完成了一份疼痛闪回的自我报告测量。
在符合PTSD标准的复杂创伤患者样本中，49%被归类为存在疼痛闪回。疼痛闪回与创伤发生时的疼痛程度呈正相关。
PTSD中的疼痛再体验，以及在非临床人群中相对不存在这种情况，支持了一种记忆观点，即在极端压力条件下编码的记忆，其感知细节可以被再次体验。有可能将一些不明原因的疼痛病例概念化为疼痛闪回或具有创伤根源。
