Pain Catastrophizing Mediates and Moderates the Link Between Acute Pain and Working Memory

The moderating effect of resting heart rate variability on the relationship between pain catastrophizing and depressed mood: an empirical study

Previous research indicated that pain catastrophizing-a negative emotional and cognitive response toward actual or anticipated pain-could contribute to pain intensity and could be associated with depressive symptoms not just in chronic pain patients but in healthy population as well. Accumulated evidence suggests that resting heart rate variability (HRV) as a putative proxy of emotion regulation could moderate the association of self-reported pain catastrophizing and depressed mood. In the present cross-sectional study, we investigated these associations in a healthy young adult sample controlling for the effect of trait rumination. Seventy-two participants (58 females, mean age = 22.2 ± 1.79 years ranging from 19 to 28 years old) completed the Pain Catastrophizing Scale, the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale and the Ruminative Response Scale. Resting HRV was measured by time domain metric of HRV, the root mean square of successive differences (RMSSD). The results showed that the relationship between pain catastrophizing and depressive symptoms is significantly moderated by resting HRV (indexed by lnRMSSD). Specifically, in participants with higher resting HRV there was no significant relationship between the two investigated variables, while in participants with relatively low or medium HRV pain catastrophizing and depressed mood showed significant positive association. The relationship remained significant after controlling for sex, age and trait rumination. These results might indicate that measuring pain catastrophizing and depressive symptoms is warranted in non-clinical samples as well and higher resting HRV could have a buffer or protective role against depressive symptoms.

Pain experience of lung cancer patients during home recovery after surgery: A qualitative descriptive study

BACKGROUND

Patients with lung cancer surgery often suffer pain after discharge. However, there is limited evidence to describe the pain experience from the qualitative investigation. This study was designed to describe the pain experience of lung cancer patients during home recovery after surgery and to provide evidence for developing pain management strategies.

METHODS

This qualitative descriptive study recruited 35 patients who had received lung resection and were discharged by purposive sampling from May to July 2022. Mobile phone interviews were conducted to collect views on patients' pain experience after discharge. The interviews were audio-recorded and converted verbatim into standard text, and the data were iteratively thematic analyzed.

RESULTS

A thematic framework was identified for three themes: perception and impact of pain, coping styles for pain, and unmet needs for pain. Whether short or long-term after discharge, patients complain that they suffer from different degrees and types of pain, causing them a "double burden" physically and mentally. The lack of knowledge about pain may lead them to adopt very different coping styles and desire professional continuous pain management.

CONCLUSIONS

This study may help clarify the status of pain problems that patients face after lung cancer surgery and provides multiple dimensions of pain assessment and management objectives for quantitative research. We call on medical staff to pay attention to patients' perspectives and related needs after discharge and formulate targeted management strategies to reduce pain and improve their quality of life.

The Relationship between Pain Catastrophizing and Cognitive Function in Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain: A Scoping Review

Objective

Chronic musculoskeletal pain (CMP) poses a considerable threat to physical, mental, and financial health worldwide. Beyond physical difficulties, CMP has a pronounced impact on pain behaviors and cognitive function. The purpose of this scoping review was to examine the relationship between pain catastrophizing (PC) and cognitive function in CMP, identify gaps in the literature, and provide future directions for research on the topic.

Methods

Search strings were entered in the following databases: PubMed, CINAHL, Nursing and Allied Health, Ovid Emcare, PsycInfo, and Scopus. Data from the included articles were extracted thematically based on diagnostic classification and included author(s), year of publication, country, aim, sample, methods, intervention (if applicable), and key findings.

Results

30 articles were included after screening. The studied populations included patients with fibromyalgia, chronic low back pain, and CMP. Two studies were designed to assess the relationship between PC and cognition as the primary aim. The included studies demonstrated variable evidence regarding the relationship between PC and cognition. Only four studies included clinically relevant PC populations (i.e., Pain Catastrophizing Scale score >30), and all found significant correlations.

Conclusion

Although evidence exists for the relationship between cognitive function and PC, there is a lack of rigorous research to indicate the strength of this relationship and the specific cognitive functions affected. The literature lacks appropriate populations needed to investigate clinically relevant PC and is limited by heterogeneous neuropsychological test batteries. Future research should include populations demonstrating the behaviors being studied, intentional analysis of outcomes, and appropriate cognitive tests.

Neutral auditory words immediately followed by painful electric shock may show reduced next-day recollection

In this study, we investigated the effect of experimentally delivered acute pain on memory. Twenty-five participants participated in experimental sessions on consecutive days. The first session involved a categorization task to encourage memory encoding. There were two conditions, presented in randomized order, in which participants listened to a series of words, which were repeated three times. In one condition, one-third of the word items were immediately followed by a painful electrical shock. This word-shock pairing was consistent across repetition and the pain-paired items were presented unpredictably. In the other condition, all word items were not associated with pain. Response times over these repeated presentations were assessed for differences. Explicit memory was tested the following day, employing a Remember-Know assessment of word recognition, with no shocks employed. We found evidence that recollection may be reduced for pain-paired words, as the proportion of correct Remember responses (out of total correct responses) was significantly lower. There were no significant reductions in memory for non-pain items that followed painful stimulation after a period of several seconds. Consistent with the experience of pain consuming working memory resources, we theorize that painful shocks interrupt memory encoding for the immediately preceding experimental items, due to a shift in attention away from the word item.

Dispositional and situational personal features and acute post-collision head and neck pain: Double mediation of pain catastrophizing and pain sensitivity

Pain variability can be partially attributed to psycho-cognitive features involved in its processing. However, accumulating research suggests that simple linear correlation between situational and dispositional factors may not be sufficiently explanatory, with some positing a role for mediating influences. In addition, acute pain processing studies generally focus on a post-operative model with less attention provided to post-traumatic injury. As such, this study aimed to investigate a more comprehensive pain processing model that included direct and indirect associations between acute pain intensity in the head and neck, pain catastrophizing (using pain catastrophizing scale (PCS)), and pain sensitivity (using the pain sensitivity questionnaire (PSQ)), among 239 patients with post-motor vehicle collision pain. The effect of personality traits (using Ten Items Personality Inventory (TIPI)) and emotional status (using Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and Perceived Stress Scale (PSS)) on that model was examined as well. To this end, three Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analyses were conducted. Overall, the data had good fit to all the models, with only PSQ found to have a direct correlation with acute pain intensity. The SEM analyses conversely revealed several mediations. Specifically, that: first, PSQ fully mediated the relationship between PCS and pain intensity; second, PCS and PSQ together fully mediated the relationship between conscientiousness (personality trait) and pain intensity; and finally, emotional status had direct and indirect links with PSQ and pain intensity. In conclusion, these models suggest that during the acute post-collision phase, pain sensitivity intermediates between emotional states and personality traits, partially via elevated pain catastrophizing thoughts.