Behavioural and cognitive psychotherapy
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The majority of pain sufferers experience images when in pain. The most distressing of these images (the Index image) provokes intense emotional reactions, appraisal shifts, and increases in pain. The ability of pain sufferers to rescript their Index images, and the consequences of doing so, remain to be determined. ⋯ Index images of pain sufferers can be easily elicited and rescripted. Rescripting leads to remarkable reductions in emotion, cognitions and pain levels that are not attributable to image repetition. The significant reductions in pain were independent of reductions in emotion. The implications of these results for CBT approaches to pain management are considered.
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Behav Cogn Psychother · Oct 2012
Pain related-visual imagery is associated with distress in chronic pain sufferers.
Chronic pain patients often describe their pain in ways that suggest vivid mental images, with some reporting images relating to their pain. Despite these clinical observations, there are few studies describing the nature and consequences of these images. This study examined whether mental imagery of pain is associated with levels of reported distress, cognitions, disability or pain severity. ⋯ Mental images of pain appear to be associated with higher levels of anxiety, depression and catastrophizing. It is possible that these images play a role in maintaining such difficulties. For these patients, imagery may provide a route via which clinicians can work with patients to help them reinterpret or respond more flexibly to their pain.