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Review
. 2001 Sep;127(5):599-617.
doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.127.5.599.

Cognitive-processing bias in chronic pain: a review and integration

Affiliations
Review

Cognitive-processing bias in chronic pain: a review and integration

T Pincus et al. Psychol Bull. 2001 Sep.

Abstract

Do patients with chronic pain selectively process pain- and illness-related stimuli? The evidence with regard to attention, interpretation, and recall biases is critically reviewed. A model is proposed to account for the findings in which it is suggested that biases in information processing in chronic pain are the result of overlap between 3 schemas: pain, illness, and self. With frequent repeated or continued experience of pain, the pain schema becomes enmeshed with illness and self-schemas. The extent of the enmeshment and the salient content of the schema determine the bias. A fundamental assumption is that all patients with pain selectively process sensory-intensity information. A clinical implication of the results is that processing biases that extend beyond this healthy and adaptive process to enmesh the self-schema with pain and illness schemas could maintain and exacerbate distress and illness behavior in patients with chronic pain.

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