• Lydia Gómez-Pérez and Alicia E López-Martínez.
• Anxiety and Illness Behaviours Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of Regina, Regina, SK, Canada. lydia.gomez.perez@uregina.ca
• Clin J Pain. 2013 May 1;29(5):425-34.

BackgroundEvidence of pain alterations in trauma-exposed individuals has been found. The presence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may be explaining these alterations, as some of the psychological characteristics of PTSD are hypothesized to increase pain response.ObjectivesTo examine differences in pain response and in certain psychological variables between trauma-exposed women (TEW) with PTSD, TEW without PTSD, and non-trauma-exposed women (NTEW) and to explore the role of these psychological variables in the differences in pain response between the groups.MethodsA total of 122 female students completed a cold pressor task (42 TEW with PTSD, 40 TEW without PTSD, and 40 NTEW). Anxiety sensitivity, experiential avoidance, trait and state dissociation, depressive symptoms, state anxiety, catastrophizing, and arousal were assessed.ResultsTEW with PTSD reported significantly higher pain unpleasantness than NTEW, but not more than that of TEW without PTSD. They also presented higher trait dissociation, state anxiety, depressive symptoms, and skin conductance than the other 2 groups and higher anxiety sensitivity than TEW without PTSD. TEW without PTSD reported more pain unpleasantness than NTEW, but they recovered faster from pain. However, these differences were not explained by any psychological variable.ConclusionsThe results suggest that although trauma-exposed individuals are not more sensitive to painful stimulation, they evaluate pain in a more negative way. Exposure to trauma itself, but not to PTSD, may explain the differences found in pain unpleasantness.

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