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Observational Study
. 2024 May 17;12(2):27.
doi: 10.3390/medsci12020027.

Emotion Processing in Peripheral Neuropathic Pain: An Observational Study

Gianluca Isoardo  1 , Mauro Adenzato  2 , Stefano Ciullo  2 , Elena Fontana  2 , Ilaria Stura  3 , Giuseppe Migliaretti  4 , Paolo Titolo  5 , Enrico Matteoni  3 , Andrea Calvo  3   6 , Federica Laino  7 , Francesca Palumbo  3 , Rita B Ardito  2
Affiliations
Observational Study

Emotion Processing in Peripheral Neuropathic Pain: An Observational Study

Gianluca Isoardo et al. Med Sci (Basel). .

Abstract

Background: In clinical practice, the implementation of tailored treatment is crucial for assessing the patient's emotional processing profile. Here, we investigate all three levels of analysis characterizing emotion processing, i.e., recognition, representation, and regulation, in patients with peripheral neuropathic pain (PNP).

Methods: Sixty-two patients and forty-eight healthy controls underwent quantitative sensory testing, i.e., psychophysical tests to assess somatosensory functions such as perception of cold (CDT), heat-induced pain (HPT), and vibration (VDT), as well as three standardized tasks to assess emotional processing: (1) the Ekman 60-Faces Test (EK-60F) to assess recognition of basic facial emotions, (2) the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RME) to assess the ability to represent the feelings of another person by observing their eyes, and (3) the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) to assess emotional dysregulation, i.e., alexithymia.

Results: General Linear Model analysis revealed a significant relationship between left index finger VDT z-scores in PNP patients with alexithymia. The RME correlated with VDT z-scores of the left little finger and overall score for the EK-60F.

Conclusions: In patients with PNP, emotion processing is impaired, which emphasizes the importance of assessing these abilities appropriately in these patients. In this way, clinicians can tailor treatment to the needs of individual patients.

Keywords: alexithymia; emotion; nerve conduction studies; neuropathic pain; quantitative sensory testing; somatosensory functions.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this article.

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