Pain
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Despite increasing interest in the attentional biases of pain patients towards pain-related stimuli, there have been no investigations of whether the main caregivers of chronic pain patients also selectively attend to pain-related information. We compared the attentional biases to painful or happy faces of 120 chronic pain patients, 118 caregivers, and 50 controls. Analyses found that both patients and caregivers demonstrated biases towards painful faces that were not observed in control participants or to happy faces. ⋯ These results add to the growing weight of evidence suggesting that biases towards pain-related stimuli are observed in chronic pain patients, but that the nature of the stimuli is important. In addition, the results suggest that caregivers, particularly those who either under- or overestimate the level of pain that the patient reports, also demonstrate similar biases. Future research should investigate the links between caregivers' biases and the way in which caregivers respond to pain.
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The aim of this study was to examine the joint role of demographic, clinical, and psychological variables as predictors of acute postsurgical pain in women undergoing hysterectomy due to benign disorders. A consecutive sample of 203 women was assessed 24 hours before (T1) and 48 hours after (T2) surgery. Baseline pain and predictors were assessed at T1 and postsurgical pain and analgesic consumption at T2. ⋯ Findings revealed an integrative heuristic model that accounts for the joint influence of demographic, clinical, and psychological factors on postsurgical pain intensity and severity. In further mediation analysis, pain catastrophizing emerged as a full mediator between presurgical anxiety and postsurgical pain intensity. The potential clinical implications for understanding, evaluating, and intervening in postsurgical pain are discussed.