Efficacy of Interpretation Bias Modification in Patients With Chronic Pain

Abstract

Patients with chronic pain demonstrate interpretational bias to pain, and models of pain suggest interpretational bias affects subsequent pain experience. This study developed an interpretation bias modification for pain (IBM-P) and examined its efficacy. A total of 48 patients with chronic pain were recruited and randomly assigned to either the training group (n = 24) or the control group (n = 24). Interpretational bias, negative emotions, and attentional bias to pain-related stimuli were assessed before and after conducting IBM-P. The main results indicated that the training group showed less interpretational bias and negative emotions after IBM-P than the control group. The training group also gazed at neutral words longer than at "new" affective pain words after IBM-P than they did prior to the intervention. Furthermore, significant mediating effects of postinterpretational bias were found in the relationship between the group type and postnegative emotions and postdwell time bias. These results suggest that IBM-P can modify interpretational bias which leads to changes in negative emotions and attentional bias. Future research is needed to confirm the effect of modifying interpretational bias and its clinical utility in the field of pain management. PERSPECTIVE: This article investigated the efficacy of IBM-P and suggested that modifying interpretational bias is followed by changes in negative emotions and attentional bias. These findings may help health professionals understand the role of interpretational bias in chronic pain and encourage the potential use of IBM in pain management.

Keywords: Chronic pain; attentional bias; interpretation bias modification; negative emotion; pain management.