The journal of pain : official journal of the American Pain Society
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Multicenter Study
Dimensionality and Reliability of the Central Sensitization Inventory in a Pooled Multicountry Sample.
Central sensitization (CS) involves the amplification of neural signaling within the central nervous system, which evokes pain hypersensitivity. The Central Sensitization Inventory (CSI) assesses 25 overlapping health-related symptom dimensions that have been reported to be associated with CS-related disorders. Previous studies have reported satisfactory test-retest reliability and internal consistency, but factor analyses have exhibited conflicting results in different language versions. ⋯ Additional analyses indicated substantial reliability for the general factor (ie, Cronbach α = .92; ω = .95; and ω hierarchical = .89). Reliability results for the 4 specific factors were considered too low to be used for subscales. The results of this study clearly suggest that only total CSI scores should be used and reported.
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Age differences are not evident in pain-related stoicism and cautiousness in people with cancer pain. Little is known about the factors associated with these pain-related attitudes or age-related patterns in these associations. The present cross-sectional study investigated the biopsychosocial correlates of the attitudes in younger and older patients with advanced cancer. ⋯ Younger and older patients exhibited different avoidance-related constructs suggesting relational challenges in the former group (avoidant attachment) and intrapersonal fear in the latter (cognitive avoidance). Medical correlates also showed age differences: younger patients showed symptom-focused correlates, whereas older patients showed aging-related correlates. Findings support a biopsychosocial framework of cancer-pain adaptation incorporating a lifespan-developmental perspective.
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Many factors interact to influence threat perception and the subsequent experience of pain. This study investigated the effect of observing pain (extrinsic threat) and intrinsic threat of pain to oneself on pressure pain threshold (PPT). Forty socially connected pairs of healthy volunteers were threat-primed and randomly allocated to experimental or control roles. ⋯ A significant increase in PPT between "baseline 2" and "pre-immersion" was seen (t = -7.6, P = .005), a pain modulatory effect of 25.8 ± 20.7%. Extrinsic and intrinsic threat of pain, in the absence of any afferent input therefore influences pain modulation. This may need to be considered in studies that use noxious afferent input with populations who show dysfunctional pain modulation.