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Stamp GE, Wadley AL, Iacovides S. Could Relationship-Based Learnt Beliefs and Expectations Contribute to Physiological Vulnerability of Chronic Pain? Making a Case to Consider Attachment in Pain Research. THE JOURNAL OF PAIN 2024:104619. [PMID: 38945383 DOI: 10.1016/j.jpain.2024.104619] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/17/2023] [Revised: 04/10/2024] [Accepted: 06/22/2024] [Indexed: 07/02/2024]
Abstract
Pain is an interpersonal and inherently social experience. Pain perception and administration of medical treatment all occur in a particular environmental and social context. Early environmental influences and early learning experiences and interactions condition the body's response to different threats (like pain), ultimately shaping the underlying neurophysiology. These early interactions and experiences also determine what situations are perceived as threatening, as well as our belief in our own ability to self-manage, and our belief in others to offer support, during perceived threats. These beliefs intrinsically drive the combination of behaviors that emerge in response to perceived threats, including pain. Such behaviors can be categorized into attachment styles. In this interdisciplinary review, we synthesize and summarize evidence from the neurobiological, psychobiological, psychosocial, and psychobehavioral fields, to describe how these beliefs are embedded in the brain's prediction models to generate a series of expectations/perceptions around the level of safety/threat in different contexts. As such, these beliefs may predict how one experiences and responds to pain, with potentially significant implications for the development and management of chronic pain. Little attention has been directed to the effect of adult attachment style on pain in research studies and in the clinical setting. Using interdisciplinary evidence, we argue why we think this interaction merits further consideration and research. PERSPECTIVE: This review explores the influence of attachment styles on pain perception, suggesting a link between social connections and chronic pain development. It aligns with recent calls to emphasize the social context in pain research and advocates for increased focus on adult attachment styles in research and clinical practice.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gabriella Elisabeth Stamp
- Brain Function Research Group, School of Physiology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
| | - Antonia Louise Wadley
- Brain Function Research Group, School of Physiology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
| | - Stella Iacovides
- Brain Function Research Group, School of Physiology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
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Bajcar EA, Bąbel P. Social Learning of Placebo Effects in Pain: A Critical Review of the Literature and a Proposed Revised Model. THE JOURNAL OF PAIN 2024:104585. [PMID: 38825051 DOI: 10.1016/j.jpain.2024.104585] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/27/2023] [Revised: 05/20/2024] [Accepted: 05/25/2024] [Indexed: 06/04/2024]
Abstract
Relatively recently, in 2009, experimental studies were undertaken to determine the role of social observational learning in forming hypoalgesic, analgesic and hyperalgesic responses to a placebo. The research findings obtained in studies published before 2018 were integrated and formed the basis of the theoretical model of social learning of placebo effects in pain proposed by Bajcar and Bąbel. This model considered the involvement of different types of modeling (ie, behavioral modeling, symbolic modeling, and verbal modeling) in shaping placebo hypoalgesia/analgesia and nocebo hyperalgesia. The model assumed that pain expectancies might be involved in observationally induced placebo effects in pain and that the effectiveness of observational learning in shaping placebo effects could be moderated by the observer's dispositions, especially empathy. Based on the latest research data, we propose a modified and significantly extended version of this model. The revised model includes the involvement of particular types of modeling in placebo effects and their role in shaping conscious pain-related expectancies. It explains the role of dispositional empathy in shaping observationally induced placebo effects. Notably, the extended version of the model considers the contribution of the characteristics of the observed person to the magnitude of placebo effects induced by social learning. PERSPECTIVE: The paper proposes a comprehensive theoretical approach to explaining the role of observational learning in shaping placebo effects in pain. The proposed model emphasizes the potential of this form of learning in shaping placebo responses and indicates factors that can modify the effectiveness of observational learning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elżbieta A Bajcar
- Pain Research Group, Institute of Psychology, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland.
| | - Przemysław Bąbel
- Pain Research Group, Institute of Psychology, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland
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Jamison RN. Unlocking the secrets of daily diary data: can we improve our understanding of the reinforcing effects of pain medication? Pain 2024:00006396-990000000-00541. [PMID: 38442414 DOI: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000003163] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/15/2023] [Accepted: 11/17/2023] [Indexed: 03/07/2024]
Affiliation(s)
- Robert N Jamison
- Departments of Anesthesiology and Psychiatry, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
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Bieniek H, Bąbel P. Placebo hypoalgesia induced by operant conditioning: a comparative study on the effects of verbal, token-based, and social rewards and punishers. Sci Rep 2023; 13:20346. [PMID: 37989856 PMCID: PMC10663593 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-47482-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/13/2023] [Accepted: 11/14/2023] [Indexed: 11/23/2023] Open
Abstract
Operant conditioning was shown to be a mechanism of placebo hypoalgesia; however, only verbal rewards and punishers were applied in the previous study. We aimed to induce placebo hypoalgesia using more clinically relevant consequences: token-based and social. Participants were divided into three experimental groups (with verbal, social, and token-based rewards and punishers); and two control groups (with and without placebo application). During operant conditioning, participants in the experimental groups received thermal stimuli of equal intensity and were rewarded for reporting lower pain and punished for reporting higher pain compared to their pretest pain levels. The control groups did not receive any consequences. Our results revealed placebo hypoalgesia was induced by operant conditioning only in the experimental groups with social and token-based reinforcement, compared to the control groups. The hypoalgesic effect found in the group that received verbal reinforcement did not differ significantly from the control group with the placebo application. Moreover, expectations about upcoming pain intensity were found to be a mediator, and the number of reinforcers received during conditioning was a predictor of placebo hypoalgesia. These findings highlight the potential benefits of incorporating token-based and social consequences for optimizing treatment outcomes in pain management.
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Affiliation(s)
- Helena Bieniek
- Institute of Psychology, Pain Research Group, Jagiellonian University, ul. Ingardena 6, 30-060, Kraków, Poland.
- Doctoral School in the Social Sciences, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland.
| | - Przemysław Bąbel
- Institute of Psychology, Pain Research Group, Jagiellonian University, ul. Ingardena 6, 30-060, Kraków, Poland
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Tu Y, Zhang L, Kong J. Placebo and nocebo effects: from observation to harnessing and clinical application. Transl Psychiatry 2022; 12:524. [PMID: 36564374 PMCID: PMC9789123 DOI: 10.1038/s41398-022-02293-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/12/2022] [Revised: 12/12/2022] [Accepted: 12/15/2022] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Placebo and nocebo effects are salubrious benefits and negative outcomes attributable to non-specific symbolic components. Leveraging advanced experimental and analytical approaches, recent studies have elucidated complicated neural mechanisms that may serve as a solid basis for harnessing the powerful self-healing and self-harming capacities and applying these findings to improve medical practice and minimize the unintended exacerbation of symptoms in medical practice. We review advances in employing psychosocial, pharmacological, and neuromodulation approaches to modulate/harness placebo and nocebo effects. While these approaches show promising potential, translating these research findings into clinical settings still requires careful methodological, technical, and ethical considerations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yiheng Tu
- CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. .,Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
| | - Libo Zhang
- grid.9227.e0000000119573309CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China ,grid.410726.60000 0004 1797 8419Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Jian Kong
- grid.32224.350000 0004 0386 9924Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA USA
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Vambheim SM, Daniali H, Flaten MA. Placebo Effects on Stress, but Not on Pain Reports. A Multi-Experiment Study. Front Psychol 2021; 12:639236. [PMID: 34163396 PMCID: PMC8215114 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.639236] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/08/2020] [Accepted: 05/10/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Contextual factors, such as participant/experimenter sex may moderate the placebo effects. We tested whether the participant and experimenter sex modulated placebo effects on experimentally induced pain and associated stress. Objective To investigate if (i) participant sex and (ii) experimenter sex influence placebo analgesia and subjective and physiological stress in two experiments employing a within-subjects and a mixed design, respectively. Placebo effects were investigated in pain reports, stress, and blood pressure. Methods Participants received painful stimulations and a placebo cream. In Experiment One (N = 59) participants underwent a placebo condition (PC) and a natural history condition (NHC) in random order. A placebo cream was applied in the PC and then the heat stimulation temperature was surreptitiously lowered. Identical stimulations were administered in the NHC, but with no cream, no information, and no lowered temperature. In Experiment Two, participants (N = 93) were randomly assigned to three groups receiving either a placebo cream with surreptitiously lowered intensity of electric stimuli (Placebo, PG), a placebo cream (Cream-Control, CCG) without changing the stimuli, or lowered intensity, but with no cream (Pain-Control, PCG) in a mixed design. All participants in both experiments received the same stimuli in the post-test as in the pre-test. Four experimenters (two females) in Experiment One, and five experimenters (two females) in Experiment Two conducted the studies. Results No placebo effect was seen on pain. However, there were placebo effects on stress, moderated by participant and experimenter sex: in Experiment One males in the PC had lower diastolic blood pressure (DBP) compared to males in the NHC. Participants in the PC had lower DBP compared to the NHC when tested by a female. In Experiment Two, participants expected more cream effectiveness when a female experimenter administered it, and reported lower stress in the PG compared to the PCG when tested by females. Conclusion Our findings highlight a distinction between placebo effects on pain and on associated stress. Secondly, female experimenters recorded lower physiological and subjective stress, higher effectiveness expectations, and lower pain from both sexes compared to male experimenters. Possible reasons for the failure to find a pain placebo effect are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Hojjat Daniali
- Department of Psychology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
| | - Magne Arve Flaten
- Department of Psychology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
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Lee IS, Jung WM, Lee YS, Wallraven C, Chae Y. Operant and classical learning principles underlying mind-body interaction in pain modulation: a pilot fMRI study. Sci Rep 2021; 11:1663. [PMID: 33462278 PMCID: PMC7813884 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-81134-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/30/2020] [Accepted: 01/04/2021] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
The operant conditioning has been less studied than the classical conditioning as a mechanism of placebo-like effect, and two distinct learning mechanisms have never been compared to each other in terms of their neural activities. Twenty-one participants completed cue-learning based pain rating tasks while their brain responses were measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging. After choosing (instrumental) or viewing (classical) one of three predictive cues (low- and high-pain cues with different level of certainty), they received painful stimuli according to the selected cues. Participants completed the same task during the test session, except that they received only a high pain stimulus regardless of the selected cues to identify the effects of two learning paradigms. While receiving a high pain stimulation, low-pain cue significantly reduced pain ratings compared to high-pain cue, and the overall ratings were significantly lower under operant than under classical conditioning. Operant behavior activated the temporoparietal junction significantly more than the passive behavior did, and neural activity in the primary somatosensory cortex was significantly reduced during pain in instrumental as compared with classical conditioning trials. The results suggest that pain modulation can be induced by classical and operant conditioning, and mechanisms of attention and context change are involved in instrumental learning.
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Affiliation(s)
- In-Seon Lee
- Acupuncture and Meridian Science Research Center, College of Korean Medicine, Kyung Hee University, 1 Hoegi-dong, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul, 02447, Republic of Korea
| | - Won-Mo Jung
- Acupuncture and Meridian Science Research Center, College of Korean Medicine, Kyung Hee University, 1 Hoegi-dong, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul, 02447, Republic of Korea
| | - Ye-Seul Lee
- Department of Anatomy and Acupoint, College of Korean Medicine, Gachon University, Seongnam, Republic of Korea
| | - Christian Wallraven
- Department of Artificial Intelligence, Department of Brain Cognitive Engineering, Korea University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Younbyoung Chae
- Acupuncture and Meridian Science Research Center, College of Korean Medicine, Kyung Hee University, 1 Hoegi-dong, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul, 02447, Republic of Korea.
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Daniali H, Flaten MA. Placebo Analgesia, Nocebo Hyperalgesia, and the Cardiovascular System: A Qualitative Systematic Review. Front Physiol 2020; 11:549807. [PMID: 33101048 PMCID: PMC7544987 DOI: 10.3389/fphys.2020.549807] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/05/2020] [Accepted: 08/17/2020] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
Background: Placebo/nocebo effects involve the autonomic nervous system, including cardiac activity, but studies have reported inconsistent findings on how cardiac activity is modulated following a placebo/nocebo effect. However, no systematic review has been conducted to provide a clear picture of cardiac placebo responses. Objective: The main goal of the present study is to review the effects of placebo analgesia and nocebo hyperalgesia on cardiac activity as measured by blood pressure, heart rate, and heart rate variability. Methods: Using several Boolean keyword combinations, the PubMed, EMBASE, PsycINFO, Cochrane Review Library, and ISI Web of Knowledge databases were searched until January 5, 2020, to find studies that analyzed blood pressure, heart rate, or heart rate variability indexes following a placebo analgesic/nocebo hyperalgesic effect. Results: Nineteen studies were found, with some reporting more than one index of cardiac activity; eight studies were on blood pressure, 14 studies on heart rate, and six on heart rate variability. No reliable association between placebo/nocebo effects and blood pressure or heart rate was found. However, placebo effects reduced, and nocebo effects increased low-frequency heart rate variability, and heart rate variability significantly predicted placebo effects in two studies. Conclusion: Placebo/nocebo effects can have reliable effects on heart rate variability, but not on heart rate and blood pressure.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Magne Arve Flaten
- Department of Psychology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
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