PAIN
Volume 149, Issue 2 , Pages 229-234 , May 2010

The role of motivation in distracting attention away from pain: An experimental study

  • Katrien Verhoeven

      Affiliations

    • Department of Experimental-Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Belgium
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author. Address: Department of Experimental-Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Henri Dunantlaan 2, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium. Tel.: +32 9 264 91 06; fax: +32 9 264 64 89.
    • ,
  • Geert Crombez

      Affiliations

    • Department of Experimental-Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Belgium
    • ,
  • Christopher Eccleston

      Affiliations

    • Centre of Pain Research, The University of Bath, UK
    • ,
  • Dimitri M.L. Van Ryckeghem

      Affiliations

    • Department of Experimental-Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Belgium
    • ,
  • Stephen Morley

      Affiliations

    • Leeds Institute of Health Sciences, University of Leeds, UK
    • ,
  • Stefaan Van Damme

      Affiliations

    • Department of Experimental-Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Belgium

Received 14 May 2009 ,Revised 23 December 2009 ,Accepted 26 January 2010.

References 

  1. Bonner SE, Sprinkle GB. The effects of monetary incentives on effort and task performance: theories, evidence, and framework for research. Acc Organ Soc. 2002;27:303–345
  2. Broadbent DE. Perception and communication. New York: Pergamon; 1958;
  3. Chapman CR. Pain: the perception of noxious events. In:  Sternbach RA editors. The psychology of pain. New York: Raven Press; 1978;p. 169–202
  4. Cohen J. Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. San Diego, CA: McGraw-Hill; 1988;
  5. Crombez G, Baeyens F, Eelen P. Sensory and temporal information about impeding pain – the influence of predictability on pain. Behav Res Ther. 1994;32:611–622
  6. Crombez G, Eccleston C, Baeyens F, Eelen P. Habituation and the interference of pain with task performance. Pain. 1997;70:149–154
  7. Crombez G, Eccleston C, Baeyens F, Eelen P. Attentional disruption is enhanced by the threat of pain. Behav Res Ther. 1998;36:195–204
  8. Crombez G, Eccleston C, Baeyens F, Eelen P. When somatic information threatens, catastrophic thinking enhances attentional interference. Pain. 1998;75:187–198
  9. Crombez G, Van Damme S, Eccleston C. Hypervigilance to pain: an experimental and clinical analysis. Pain. 2005;116:4–7
  10. de Wied M, Verbaten MN. Affective pictures processing, attention and pain tolerance. Pain. 2001;90:163–172
  11. Eccleston C. Chronic pain and attention: a cognitive approach. Br J Clin Psychol. 1994;33:535–547
  12. Eccleston C. The attentional control of pain: methodological and theoretical concerns. Pain. 1995;63:3–10
  13. Eccleston C, Crombez G. Pain demands attention: a cognitive-affective model of the interruptive function of pain. Psychol Bull. 1999;125:356–366
  14. Eccleston C, Crombez G. Worry and chronic pain: a misdirected problem solving model. Pain. 2007;132:233–236
  15. Eccleston C, Crombez G, Aldrich S, Stannard C. Worry and chronic pain patients: a description and analysis of individual differences. Eur J Pain. 2001;5:309–318
  16. Elomaa MM, Williams ACC, Kalso EA. Attention management as a treatment for chronic pain. Eur J Pain. 2009;13:1062–1067
  17. Fishbach A, Ferguson MF. The goal construct in social psychology. In:  Krunglanski AW,  Higgens ET editor. Social psychology: handbook of basic principles. New York: Guilford; 2007;p. 490–515
  18. Förster J, Liberman N, Higgins ET. Accessibility from active and fulfilled goals. J Exp Soc Psychol. 2005;41:220–239
  19. Goschke T, Dreisbach G. Conflict-triggered goal shielding. Response conflicts attenuate background monitoring for prospective memory cues. Psychol Sci. 2008;19:25–32
  20. Goubert L, Crombez G, Eccleston C, Devulder J. Distraction from chronic pain during a pain-inducing activity is associated with greater post-activity pain. Pain. 2004;110:220–227
  21. Heyneman NE, Fremouw WJ, Gano D, Kirkland F, Heiden L. Individual differences and the effectiveness of different coping strategies for pain. Cogn Ther Res. 1990;14:63–77
  22. Hirsch MS, Liebert RM. The physical and psychological experience of pain: the effects of labelling and cold pressor temperature on three pain measures in college women. Pain. 1998;77:41–48
  23. Hodes RL, Howland EW, Lightfoot N, Cleeland CS. The effects of distraction on responses to cold pressor pain. Pain. 1990;41:109–114
  24. Jackson T, Pope L, Nagasaka T, Fritch A, Iezzi T, Chen H. The impact of threatening information about pain on coping and pain tolerance. Br J Health Psychol. 2005;10:441–451
  25. James JE, Hardardottir D. Influence of attention focus and trait anxiety on tolerance of acute pain. Br J Health Psychol. 2002;7:149–162
  26. Johnson MH, Breakwell G, Douglas W, Humphries S. The effects of imagery and sensory detection distractors on different measures of pain: how does distraction works?. Br J Clin Psychol. 1998;37:141–154
  27. Kahneman D. Attention and effort. Englewood Cliffs, New York: Prentice Hall; 1973;
  28. Kahneman D, Fredrickson BL, Schreiber CA, Redelmeier DA. When more pain is preferred to less-adding a better end. Psychol Sci. 1993;4:401–405
  29. Kenntner-Mabiala R, Weyers P, Pauli P. Independent effects of emotion and attention on sensory and affective pain perception. Cogn Emot. 2007;21:1615–1629
  30. Keogh E, Hatton K, Ellery D. Avoidance versus focused attention and the perception of pain: differential effects for men and women. Pain. 2000;85:225–230
  31. Klinger E. The contents of thoughts: interference as the downside of adaptive normal mechanisms in thought flow. In: Sarason IG, Pierce GR, Sarason BR, editors. Cognitive interference: theories, methods & findings. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates; 1996. p. 441.
  32. Koyama Y, Koyama T, Kroncke AP, Coghill RC. Effects of stimulus duration on heat induced pain: the relationship between real-time and post-stimulus pain ratings. Pain. 2004;107:256–266
  33. Legrain V. The modulation of pain by attention. Insights arising from neurophysiological studies. Doul Analg. 2008;21:99–107
  34. Legrain V, Van Damme S, Eccleston C, Davis KD, Seminowicz DA, Crombez G. A neurocognitive model of attention to pain: behavioral and neuroimaging evidence. Pain. 2009;144:230–232
  35. Leventhal H. I know distraction works even though it doesn’t!. Health Psychol. 1992;11:208–209
  36. Leventhal H, Brown D, Shacham S, Engquist G. Effects preparatory information about sensations, threat of pain, and attention on cold pressor distress. J Pers Soc Psychol. 1979;37:688–714
  37. Marchand S, Arsenault P. Odors modulate pain perception: a gender-specific effect. Physiol Behav. 2002;76:251–256
  38. McCaul KD, Haugtvedt C. Attention, distraction and cold pressor pain. J Pers Soc Psychol. 1984;43:154–162
  39. McCaul KD, Malott JM. Distraction and coping with pain. Psychol Bull. 1984;95:516–533
  40. McCaul KD, Monson N, Maki RH. Does distraction reduce pain-produced distress among college students?. Health Psychol. 1992;11:210–217
  41. Meagher MW, Arnau RC, Rhudy JL. Pain and emotion: effects of affective picture modulation. Psychosom Med. 2001;63:79–90
  42. Miron D, Duncan GH, Bushnell MC. Effects of attention on the intensity and unpleasantness of thermal pain. Pain. 1989;39:345–352
  43. Mitchell LA, MacDonald AR, Brodie EE. Temperature and the cold pressor test. J Pain. 2004;5:233–238
  44. Morley S, Shapiro DA, Biggs J. Developing a treatment manual for attention management in chronic pain. Cogn Behav Ther. 2004;32:1–12
  45. Norman DA, Shallice T. Attention to action: willed and automatic control of behaviour. In:  Davidson RJ,  Schwartz GE,  Shapiro D editor. Consciousness and self-regulation: advances in research and theory. London: Plenum Press; 1986;p. 1–18
  46. Roelofs J, Peters ML, van der Zijden M, Vlaeyen J. Does fear of pain moderate the effects of sensory focussing and distraction on cold pressor pain in pain-free individuals?. J Pain. 2004;5:250–256
  47. Seminowicz DA, Davis KD. Interactions of pain intensity and cognitive load: the brain stays on task. Cereb Cortex. 2007;17:1412–1422
  48. Seminowicz DA, Davis KD. A re-examination of pain-cognition interactions: implications for neuroimaging. Pain. 2007;130:8–13
  49. Shah JY, Friedman R, Kruglanski AW. Forgetting all else: on the antecedents and consequences of goal shielding. J Pers Soc Psychol. 2002;83:1261–1280
  50. Sullivan MJL, Bishop SR, Pivik J. The pain catastrophizing scale: development and validation. Psychol Assess. 1995;7:524–532
  51. Terkelsen AJ, Andersen OK, Mølgaard H, Hansen J, Jensen TS. Mental stress inhibits pain perception and heart rate variability but not a nociceptive withdrawal reflex. Acta Physiol Scand. 2004;180:405–414
  52. Van Breukelen GJP, Van Dijck KRA. Use of covariates in randomized controlled trials. J Int Neuropsychol Soc. 2007;13:903–904
  53. Van Damme S, Crombez G, Bijttebier P, Goubert L, Van Houdenhove B. A confirmatory factor analysis of the pain catastrophizing scale: invariant factor structure across clinical and non-clinical population. Pain. 2002;96:319–324
  54. Van Damme S, Crombez G, Eccleston C. Retarted disengagement from pain cues: the effects of pain catastrophizing and pain expectancy. Pain. 2002;100:111–118
  55. Van Damme S, Crombez G, Eccleston C. Disengagement from pain: the role of catastrophic thinking about pain. Pain. 2004;107:70–76
  56. Van Damme S, Crombez G, Lorenz J. Pain draws visual attention to its location: experimental evidence for a threat related-bias. J Pain. 2007;8:976–982
  57. Van Damme S, Crombez G, Van Nieuwenborgh-De wever K, Goubert L. Is distraction less effective when pain is threatening? An experimental investigation with the cold pressor task. Eur J Pain. 2008;12:60–67
  58. Van Damme S, Legrain V, Vogt J, Crombez G. Keeping pain in mind: a motivational account of attention to pain. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2010;34:204–213)
  59. Vandierendonck A, De Vooght G, Van der Goten K. Interfering with the central executive by means of a random interval repetition task. Q J Exp Psychol. 1998;51:197–218
  60. Villemure C, Bushnell MC. Cognitive modulation of pain: how do attention and emotion influence pain processing?. Pain. 2002;95:195–199
  61. Villemure C, Slotnick BM, Bushnell MC. Effects of odors on pain perception: deciphering the roles of emotion and attention. Pain. 2003;106:101–108
  62. Von Baeyer CL, Piira T, Chambers CT, Trapanotto M, Zeltzer LK. Guidelines for the cold pressor task as an experimental pain stimulus for use with children. J Pain. 2005;6:218–227
  63. Von Korff M, Ormel J, Keefe FJ, Dworkin SF. Grading the severity of chronic pain. Pain. 1992;50:133–149

PII: S0304-3959(10)00059-X

doi: 10.1016/j.pain.2010.01.019

PAIN
Volume 149, Issue 2 , Pages 229-234 , May 2010

Article Tools

* Image Usage & Resolution