The role of hypervigilance in the experience of pain

The role of fear of pain in the experience of pain is well-documented in research with clinical and healthy samples. An increased level of pain-related fear is associated with more intense pain (McCracken et al. 1996), more avoidance of activity (Crombez et al. 1998c ; Waddell 1998), and greater functional impairments (McCracken et al. 1993; Crombez et al. 1999b). Several authors have also argued that fear of pain induces a hypervigilance for pain or other somatic sensations (Eccleston and Crombez 1999; Aldrich et al. 2000; Vlaeyen and Linton 2000). Hypervigilance for pain, or overalertness for pain, has been understood in different ways. In this chapter we examine the concept of hypervigilance to pain in normal and clinical pain samples.