Psychosomatic medicine
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The operant model of chronic pain posits that nonverbal pain behavior, such as facial expressions, is sensitive to reinforcement, but experimental evidence supporting this assumption is sparse. The aim of the present study was to investigate in a healthy population a) whether facial pain behavior can indeed be operantly conditioned using a discriminative reinforcement schedule to increase and decrease facial pain behavior and b) to what extent these changes affect pain experience indexed by self-ratings. ⋯ These results suggest that a) facial pain displays are sensitive to reinforcement and b) that changes in facial pain displays can affect self-report ratings.
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Psychosomatic medicine · Jun 2011
Major depressive disorder, anxiety disorders, and cardiac biomarkers in subjects at high risk of obstructive sleep apnea.
Cardiac biomarkers may be valuable when exploring potential mechanisms for the association between cardiovascular disease and psychiatric disorders. In subjects at increased risk for obstructive sleep apnea, we examined whether major depressive disorder (MDD), anxiety disorders, or the combination of these was associated with circulating C-reactive protein (CRP), cardiac troponin T (cTnT), or heart rate variability (HRV). ⋯ Although CRP was increased both in MDD and anxiety disorders, patients with comorbid MDD and anxiety may be particularly prone to increased systemic inflammation. Neither MDD nor anxiety disorders were associated with low-level myocardial damage or HRV.