• J Pain · Mar 2020

    Changes in pain-related fear and pain when avoidance behaviour is no longer effective.

    • Christine M van Vliet, Ann Meulders, VancleefLinda M GLMGExperimental Health Psychology, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands., Elke Meyers, and VlaeyenJohan W SJWSResearch Group Health Psychology, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; Experimental Health Psychology, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands..
    • Research Group Health Psychology, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; Experimental Health Psychology, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands. Electronic address: christine.vanvliet@kuleuven.be.
    • J Pain. 2020 Mar 1; 21 (3-4): 494-505.

    AbstractAvoidance is considered key in the development of chronic pain. However, little is known about how avoidance behavior subsequently affects pain-related fear and pain. We investigated this using a robotic arm reaching avoidance task. In a between-subjects design both Experimental Group (n = 30) and Yoked Control Group (n = 30) participants perform either of 3 movement trajectories (T1-T3) to reach a target location. During acquisition, only participants of the Experimental Group could partially or fully avoid a painful electrocutaneous stimulus by choosing the intermediate trajectory (T2; 50% reinforcement) or the longest trajectory (T3; 0% reinforcement) versus the shortest trajectory (T1: 100% reinforcement). After acquisition, contingencies changed (all trajectories 50% reinforced), and the acquired avoidance behavior no longer effectively prevented pain from occurring. The Yoked Control Group received the same reinforcement schedule as the Experimental Group irrespective of their behavior. When avoidance behavior became ineffective for the Experimental Group, pain-related fear increased for the previously safe(r) trajectories (T2 and T3) and remained the same for T1, whereas pain threshold and tolerance declined. For the Yoked Group, pain-related fear increased for all trajectories. The Experimental Group persisted in emitting avoidance behavior following the contingency change, albeit at a lower frequency than during acquisition. PERSPECTIVE: Results indicate participants become more afraid of and sensitive to pain, when previously acquired avoidance is no longer effective. Also, participants continue to show avoidance behavior despite it being not adaptive anymore. These findings suggest that ineffective avoidance may play role in the maintenance and development of chronic pain.Copyright © 2019 United States Association for the Study of Pain, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…

What will the 'Medical Journal of You' look like?

Start your free 21 day trial now.

We guarantee your privacy. Your email address will not be shared.