Pain medicine : the official journal of the American Academy of Pain Medicine
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To investigate if attention to additional sensory information from the fingertip can improve postural stability during pain, which is known to impair balance. ⋯ Providing additional sensory information while pain patients are performing balance exercises may improve postural stability and increase the quality of exercise, consequent rehabilitation protocols, and clinical outcomes.
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Pain modulation is a critical function of the nociceptive system that includes the ability to engage descending pain control systems to maintain a functional balance between facilitation and inhibition of incoming sensory stimuli. Dysfunctional pain modulation is associated with increased risk for chronic pain and is characteristic of fibromyalgia (FM). Catastrophizing is also common in FM. However, its influence on pain modulation is poorly understood. ⋯ FM patients with higher levels of catastrophizing were less able to distract themselves from pain, indicative of catastrophizing-related impairments in pain modulation. These results suggest that the tendency to catastrophize interacts with attention-resource allocation and may represent a mechanism of chronic pain exacerbation and/or maintenance. Reducing catastrophizing may improve FM symptoms via improving central nervous system regulation of pain.