Psychosomatic medicine
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Psychosomatic medicine · Feb 2017
The Role of Chronic Psychosocial Stress in Explaining Racial Differences in Stress Reactivity and Pain Sensitivity.
To examine the role of psychosocial factors in mediating the relationship between African American (AA) race and both increased pain sensitivity and blunted stress reactivity. ⋯ Accounting for psychosocial factors eliminated racial differences in stress reactivity but not racial differences in sensitivity to experimental pain tasks. Increased exposure to chronic stress may not explain AAs' increased pain sensitivity in laboratory settings.