• Fenan S Rassu, Hans R Linsenbardt, Sherecce A Fields, and Mary W Meagher.
• Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas.
• J Pain. 2018 Sep 1; 19 (9): 962-972.

AbstractChronic pain patients show elevated risk behavior on decision-making tasks, as well as increased health risk behaviors (eg, smoking, prescription opioid abuse). Determining pain's effect on underlying cognitive processes that are associated with risk behavior is confounded by comorbidities linked with chronic pain, including depression, anxiety, and substance abuse. Therefore, to understand pain's effect on delay discounting, a behavioral process assessing the extent to which outcomes are devalued as a function of their delay, the present study evaluated the effect of laboratory pain on delay discounting in healthy young adults (N = 85). Using a mixed factorial design, pain (topical capsaicin and warmth) as well as active control (warmth) groups completed a delay discounting task before and during exposure to their respective manipulations. Whereas the pain condition had no effect on delay discounting, participants' pain intensity, unpleasantness, and pain-induced negative valence were associated with less discounting of delayed rewards. However, the effects were very small.Copyright © 2018 The American Pain Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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