Logo image
Painful effects of auditory startle, forehead cooling and psychological stress in patients with fibromyalgia or rheumatoid arthritis
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Painful effects of auditory startle, forehead cooling and psychological stress in patients with fibromyalgia or rheumatoid arthritis

P.D. Drummond and M. Willox
Journal of Psychosomatic Research, Vol.74(5), pp.378-383
2013
pdf
Painful_effects_of_auditory_startle,_forehead_cooling_and_psychological_stress_in_patients_with_fibromyalgia_or_rheumatoid_arthritis.pdfDownloadView
Author’s Version Open Access
url
Link to Published Version *Subscription may be requiredView

Abstract

Objective The aim of this study was to determine whether the clinical pain associated with rheumatoid arthritis or fibromyalgia would increase during standard laboratory tasks and, if so, whether these increases were linked with individual differences in psychological distress. Methods Twenty-three patients with fibromyalgia and 16 patients with rheumatoid arthritis rated changes in clinical pain after an acoustic startle stimulus, during painful forehead cooling, and during stressful mental arithmetic. In addition, pain tolerance was assessed during a submaximal effort tourniquet test, and patients provided ratings of distress on a standard Depression, Anxiety and Stress Inventory. Results Pain at rest was associated with depression scores in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, and was associated with stress scores in the fibromyalgia group. However, pain tolerance was unrelated to individual differences in psychological distress in either group. In patients with fibromyalgia, clinical pain increased after the acoustic startle stimulus and painful forehead cooling, and increased during stressful mental arithmetic. Arthritic pain also increased during forehead cooling and mental arithmetic in association with indices of psychological distress. Conclusions These findings suggest that processes linked with individual differences in distress aggravate pain in rheumatoid arthritis, whereas some other mechanism (e.g., failure of stress-related pain modulation processes or an aberrant interaction between nociceptive afferent and sympathetic efferent fibers) triggers stress-induced pain in fibromyalgia.

Details

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This output has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#3 Good Health and Well-Being

Source: InCites

Metrics

382 File views/ downloads
113 Record Views

InCites Highlights

These are selected metrics from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool, related to this output

Citation topics
1 Clinical & Life Sciences
1.129 Back pain
1.129.1191 Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue
Web Of Science research areas
Psychiatry
ESI research areas
Psychiatry/Psychology
Logo image