European journal of pain : EJP
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The relationships between worry, happiness and pain catastrophizing in the experience of acute pain.
The current study aimed to (a) evaluate the effects of an experimental manipulation of worry and happiness on pain perception and measures of worry about pain and pain catastrophizing and (b) determine if changes in situation-specific worry about pain and pain catastrophizing would be related to changes in acute pain. ⋯ The current study shows that manipulation-induced changes in pain-related worry, pain catastrophizing, and affect have direct effects on the experience of acute pain. More broadly, the overlap of these three variables provides with anxiety and mood disorders offers the promise of new vistas for research and treatment of pain conditions by assessing and targeting the cognitions and behaviors that are common to worry and catastrophizing.