Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2010 May;149(2):202-207.
doi: 10.1016/j.pain.2009.11.012. Epub 2010 Feb 25.

Catastrophizing delays the analgesic effect of distraction

Claudia M Campbell  1 , Kenny Witmer, Mpepera Simango, Alene Carteret, Marco L Loggia, James N Campbell, Jennifer A Haythornthwaite, Robert R Edwards
Affiliations

Catastrophizing delays the analgesic effect of distraction

Claudia M Campbell et al. Pain. 2010 May.

Abstract

Behavioral analgesic techniques such as distraction reduce pain in both clinical and experimental settings. Individuals differ in the magnitude of distraction-induced analgesia, and additional study is needed to identify the factors that influence the pain relieving effects of distraction. Catastrophizing, a set of negative emotional and cognitive processes, is widely recognized to be associated with increased reports of pain. We sought to evaluate the relationship between catastrophizing and distraction analgesia. Healthy participants completed three sessions in a randomized order. In one session (Pain Alone), pain was induced by topical application of a 10% capsaicin cream and simultaneous administration of a tonic heat stimulus. In another session (Pain+Distraction), identical capsaicin+heat application procedures were followed, but subjects played video games that required a high level of attention. During both sessions, verbal ratings of pain were obtained and participants rated their degree of catastrophizing. During the other session (Distraction Alone) subjects played the video games in the absence of any pain stimulus. Pain was rated significantly lower during the distraction session compared to the "Pain Alone" session. In addition, high catastrophizers rated pain significantly higher regardless of whether the subjects were distracted. Catastrophizing did not influence the overall degree of distraction analgesia; however, early in the session high catastrophizers had little distraction analgesia, though later in the session low and high catastrophizers rated pain similarly. These results suggest that both distraction and catastrophizing have substantial effects on experimental pain in normal subjects and these variables interact as a function of time.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Disclosures: The authors have no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Session Timeline
Figure 2
Figure 2
Pain intensity ratings in the Pain Alone session in lower vs. higher catastrophizers over time. Error bars represent SEM.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Percent change in pain between Pain Alone and Pain + Distraction among lower vs. higher catastrophizers over time. Error bars represent SEM.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

References

    1. Anderson WS, Sheth RN, Bencherif B, Frost JJ, Campbell JN. Naloxone increases pain induced by topical capsaicin in healthy human volunteers. Pain. 2002;99:207–216. - PubMed
    1. Bandura A, Cioffi D, Taylor CB, Brouillard ME. Perceived self-efficacy in coping with cognitive stressors and opioid activation. J Pers Soc Psychol. 1988;55:479–488. - PubMed
    1. Bantick SJ, Wise RG, Ploghaus A, Clare S, Smith SM, Tracey I. Imaging how attention modulates pain in humans using functional MRI. Brain. 2002;125:310–319. - PubMed
    1. Bencherif B, Fuchs PN, Sheth R, Dannals RF, Campbell JN, Frost JJ. Pain activation of human supraspinal opioid pathways as demonstrated by [11C]-carfentanil and positron emission tomography (PET) Pain. 2002;99:589–598. - PubMed
    1. Brooks JC, Nurmikko TJ, Bimson WE, Singh KD, Roberts N. fMRI of thermal pain: effects of stimulus laterality and attention. Neuroimage. 2002;15:293–301. - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms