scholarly journals Pain-Related and Negative Semantic Priming Enhances Perceived Pain Intensity

2014 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 69-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Richter ◽  
Christoph Schroeter ◽  
Theresa Puensch ◽  
Thomas Straube ◽  
Holger Hecht ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND: Negative affective and pain-related cues, such as pictures or words, have been shown to act as primes and enhance the perceived intensity of subsequent painful events. For pain-related semantic primes, it remains unclear whether this effect depends on negative valence itself or, specifically, on the pain-relatedness of the words.OBJECTIVES: To investigate the effect of pain-related, negative affective (pain-unrelated) and neutral semantic primes on the perception of subsequent noxious target stimuli.METHODS: Pain ratings in response to noxious electrical stimulation of light and moderate intensity were examined in 39 healthy subjects after subjects were exposed to semantic primes of different meaning and valence (pain-related, negative, positive and neutral adjectives) presented with different interstimulus intervals (0 ms, 500 ms and 1500 ms).RESULTS: Increased pain ratings of noxious stimuli were observed following pain-related and negative compared with neutral primes.DISCUSSION: The results support the motivational priming theory for semantic stimuli, indicating that affectively negative semantic primes increase subjective pain intensity. However, a specific pain-related priming effect was not reliably demonstrated. Additionally, it is shown that experimental parameters (ie, stimulus intensity and interstimulus interval) modify the extent of negative and pain-related semantic priming.CONCLUSIONS: Verbal priming plays a role for the perception of noxious stimuli in a time-dependent manner.

2002 ◽  
Vol 87 (4) ◽  
pp. 2205-2208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua D. Grill ◽  
Robert C. Coghill

Pain has long been thought to wax and wane in relative proportion to fluctuations in the intensity of noxious stimuli. Dynamic aspects of nociceptive processing, however, remain poorly characterized. Here we show that small decreases (±1–3°C) in noxious stimulus temperatures (47–50°C) evoked changes in perceived pain intensity that were as much as 271% greater than those of equal magnitude increases. These decreases in perceived pain intensity were sufficiently large to be indistinguishable from those evoked by 15°C decreases to clearly innocuous levels. Furthermore, decreases in pain ratings following noxious stimulus offset were significantly greater than those occurring during adaptation to constant temperature stimuli. Together, these findings indicate that an analgesic mechanism is activated during noxious stimulus offset. This analgesic phenomenon may serve as a temporal contrast enhancement mechanism to amplify awareness of stimulus offset and to reinforce escape behaviors. Disruption of this mechanism may contribute importantly to chronic pain.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (12) ◽  
pp. e0231124
Author(s):  
Benedict J. Alter ◽  
Mya Sandi Aung ◽  
Irina A. Strigo ◽  
Howard L. Fields

Reported pain intensity depends not only on stimulus intensity but also on previously experienced pain. A painfully hot temperature applied to the skin evokes a lower subjective pain intensity if immediately preceded by a higher temperature, a phenomenon called offset analgesia. Previous work indicated that prior pain experience can also increase subsequent perceived pain intensity. Therefore, we examined whether a given noxious stimulus is experienced as more intense when it is preceded by an increase from a lower temperature. Using healthy volunteer subjects, we observed a disproportionate increase in pain intensity at a given stimulus intensity when this intensity is preceded by a rise from a lower intensity. This disproportionate increase is similar in magnitude to that of offset analgesia. We call this effect onset hyperalgesia. Control stimuli, in which a noxious temperature is held constant, demonstrate that onset hyperalgesia is distinct from receptor or central sensitization. The absolute magnitudes of offset analgesia and onset hyperalgesia correlate with each other but not with the noxious stimulus temperature. Finally, the magnitude of both offset analgesia and onset hyperalgesia depends on preceding temperature changes. Overall, this study demonstrates that the perceptual effect of a noxious thermal stimulus is influenced in a bidirectional manner depending upon both the intensity and direction of change of the immediately preceding thermal stimulus.


2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-104
Author(s):  
Muhammad Rafiq

Recent findings have indicated that hypnotic interventions produce significant decrease in pain intensity. This current case studies are focused to highlight significant impact on pain management including headache. All the patients underwent a complete observation and clinical interview and only patients with psychological pain were included in the study group. For the management of headache, a novel hypnotic intervention - Circle Therapy (CT), was applied on a group of ten patients indicating their pain intensity in the range of 8-10 on subjective pain rating scale. According to rating scale, headache above 8 was considered as severe, 5-8 moderate and < 5 as mild.  CT is a brief hypnotic technique limited to about 10 min. Post hypnosis ratings were also measured. The pre and post hypnosis data were recorded and analyzed by paired samples t test. Use of CT showed significant results between pre and post rating e.g. 9 ± 0.25 vs. 1 ± 0.21 (p < 0.001). This brief CT intervention provided an immediate relief from headache, however, this is limited to few case studies focusing on just headache. So, we recommend large sample studies to document the effects of CT in different types of pain. Citation: Rafiq M. Circle therapy for headache management: case studies. Anaesth pain intensive care 2020;24(1):__ DOI: https://doi.org/10.35975/apic.v24i1. Received – 28 December 2019; Reviewed – 10 January 2020; Accepted - 10 January 2020;


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Toshio Tsuji ◽  
Fumiya Arikuni ◽  
Takafumi Sasaoka ◽  
Shin Suyama ◽  
Takashi Akiyoshi ◽  
...  

AbstractBrain activity associated with pain perception has been revealed by numerous PET and fMRI studies over the past few decades. These findings helped to establish the concept of the pain matrix, which is the distributed brain networks that demonstrate pain-specific cortical activities. We previously found that peripheral arterial stiffness $${\beta }_{\text{art}}$$ β art responds to pain intensity, which is estimated from electrocardiography, continuous sphygmomanometer, and photo-plethysmography. However, it remains unclear whether and to what extent $${\beta }_{\text{art}}$$ β art aligns with pain matrix brain activity. In this fMRI study, 22 participants received different intensities of pain stimuli. We identified brain regions in which the blood oxygen level-dependent signal covaried with $${\beta }_{\text{art}}$$ β art using parametric modulation analysis. Among the identified brain regions, the lateral and medial prefrontal cortex and ventral and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex were consistent with the pain matrix. We found moderate correlations between the average activities in these regions and $${\beta }_{\text{art}}$$ β art (r = 0.47, p < 0.001). $${\beta }_{\text{art}}$$ β art was also significantly correlated with self-reported pain intensity (r = 0.44, p < 0.001) and applied pain intensity (r = 0.43, p < 0.001). Our results indicate that $${\beta }_{\text{art}}$$ β art is positively correlated with pain-related brain activity and subjective pain intensity. This study may thus represent a basis for adopting peripheral arterial stiffness as an objective pain evaluation metric.


1997 ◽  
Vol 41 (6) ◽  
pp. 785-789 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. MØINICHE ◽  
J. B. DAHL ◽  
C-J. ERICHSEN ◽  
L. MEINERT JENSEN ◽  
H. KEHLET

1995 ◽  
Vol 58 (10) ◽  
pp. 435-438 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monica Moran ◽  
Jenny Strong

In order to evaluate the effectiveness of a rehabilitation programme for patients with chronic back pain, data on the subjective outcomes of perceived pain intensity (as measured by the Visual Analogue Scale Horizontal) and perceived level of disability (as measured by the Oswestry Low Back Pain Disability Questionnaire), and the objective outcome of functional capacity (as measured by the West Standardised Evaluation), were collected on 51 subjects prior to entry into a back pain rehabilitation programme and at discharge. The results at discharge showed a significant reduction in the perceived level of disability and a significant Increase in the functional capacity. The perceived pain intensity did not change significantly. The discussion focuses on the importance of directing therapeutic interventions towards increasing physical function rather than concentrating on the reduction or elimination of pain.


1998 ◽  
Vol 86 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 1263-1266
Author(s):  
Michael Loftin ◽  
Amos Zeichner ◽  
Matthew Given

Differences in methodology among studies using the cold pressor task have affected the level of pain reported by subjects. This study was designed to assess the effects of varying frequency of self-report on intensity of subjective pain ratings. In a sample of 108 subjects, significant differences in pain ratings were found between subjects who rated their pain at 50-sec. intervals and groups who rated at lower or higher frequencies. Analysis indicated that the frequency of reporting pain may influence the coping strategies used by patients with pain and should be considered carefully by researchers.


2002 ◽  
Vol 93 (1) ◽  
pp. 233-241 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeff K. Trimmer ◽  
Jean-Marc Schwarz ◽  
Gretchen A. Casazza ◽  
Michael A. Horning ◽  
Nestor Rodriguez ◽  
...  

We evaluated the hypothesis that coordinated adjustments in absolute rates of gluconeogenesis (GNGab) and hepatic glycogenolysis (Gly) would maintain euglycemia and match glucose production (GP) to peripheral utilization during rest and exercise. Specifically, we evaluated the extent to which gradations in exercise power output would affect the contribution of GNGab to GP. For these purposes, we employed mass isotopomer distribution analysis (MIDA) and isotope-dilution techniques on eight postabsorptive (PA) endurance-trained men during 90 min of leg cycle ergometry at 45 and 65% peak O2 consumption (V˙o 2 peak; moderate and hard intensities, respectively) and the preceding rest period. GP was constant in resting subjects, whereas the fraction from GNG (fGNG) increased over time during rest (22.3 ± 0.9% at 11.25 h PA vs. 25.6 ± 0.9% at 12.0 h PA, P < 0.05). In the transition from rest to exercise, GP increased in an intensity-dependent manner (rest, 2.0 ± 0.1; 45%, 4.0 ± 0.4; 65%, 5.84 ± 0.64 mg · kg−1 · min−1, P < 0.05), although glucose rate of disappearance exceeded rate of appearance during the last 30 min of exercise at 65%V˙o 2 peak. Compared with rest, increases in GP were sustained by 92 and 135% increments in GNGab during moderate- and hard-intensity exercises, respectively. Correspondingly, Gly (calculated as the difference between GP and MIDA-measured GNGab) increased 100 and 203% over rest during the two exercise intensities. During moderate-intensity exercise, fGNG was the same as at rest; however, during the harder exercise fGNG decreased significantly to account for only 21% of GP. The highest sustained GNGab observed in these trials on PA men was 1.24 ± 0.3 mg · kg−1 · min−1. We conclude that, after an overnight fast, 1) absolute GNG rates increased with intensity of effort despite a reduced fGNG at 65% V˙o 2 peak, 2) during exercise Gly is more responsible than GNGab for maintaining GP, and 3) in 12-h fasted men, neither increased Gly or GNGab nor was their combination able to maintain euglycemia during prolonged hard (65%V˙o 2 peak) exercise.


2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Jacob Miguel Vigil ◽  
Patrick Coulombe ◽  
Lauren Nikki Rowell ◽  
Chance Strenth ◽  
Eric Kruger ◽  
...  

The current study examines how subjective pain reporting is influenced by the concordant and discordant nature of the ethnic identities of pain expressers (participants) and pain assessors (experimenters). Three discomfort conditions that varied in stimuli intensity (Study 1: mild pain; Study 2: severe pain), and distraction components (Study 3) were used to assess whether pain intensity and tolerance reporting differ with the ethnic identification of the participant and the experimenter. Specifically, 87 Hispanic and 74 Non-Hispanic White (NHW) women (18–51 yrs., Mage = 20.0, SD = 4.3) underwent a cold pressor pain task (CPT) after engaging in minimal procedural interactions with one of the 22 research experimenters (47% Hispanic, 42% females). The procedural interactions with the experimenters included only consenting and instructions, with no interaction between experimenter and participant during the actual CPT. Random-effects models showed that between the 0% and 18% of the variance in pain sensitivity (intensity and tolerance scores) was attributable to characteristics of the experimenters. Controlling for self-esteem, baseline pain levels, and the gender of the experimenter, Hispanic subjects showed higher pain sensitivity (as marked by lower pain tolerance and higher pain intensity scores) following interactions with an NHW rather than a Hispanic experimenter in response to the most severe pain intensity stimuli. These results question the validity of common findings of ethnic differences in pain sensitivity from studies that have not accounted for the ethnic identity of the pain assessor (and the general communicative nature of pain reporting).


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