Pain
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Comparative Study
A psychophysical analysis of experimential factors that selectively influence the affective dimension of pain.
A psychophysical analysis was made of experiential factors that influence the affective but not the sensory-discriminative dimension of pain. Seven subjects made cross-modality matching responses to several dimensions of their experience. Before each stimulus, they matched line lengths to their experienced desire to avoid pain (significance) and to their perceived likelihood of avoiding it (expectation). ⋯ In the other session, they simply focused on the pleasantness or unpleasantness of each sensation as it was experienced (affect-process responses). All subjects' affect-result responses were more positive (or less unpleasant) than affect-process responses. All of these results underscore the critical influence of expectations and the manner in which one evaluates sensations on affective responses to noxious stimulation.
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Comparative Study
The behavioral management of chronic pain: long-term follow-up with comparison groups.
To assess the long-term efficacy of an operant inpatient treatment program for severely disabled chronic pain patients, 26 treated patients were compared with 20 rejected for treatment by a clinic team and 12 who refused treatment. At follow-up ranging from 1 to 8 years, 77% of treated participants were leading normal lives without medication for pain compared to one patient in the other two groups. At time of evaluation, unsuccessfully treated patients used more medications and were higher on MMPI measures of paranoia and lower on ego-strength than successfully treated patients. Spouses of unsuccessfully treated patients had higher MMPI scores on hypochondriasis and hysteria than spouses of successfully treated patients.