TY - JOUR
T1 - Worry and chronic pain patients: A description and analysis of individual differences
AU - Eccleston, C
AU - Crombez, G
AU - Aldrich, S
AU - Stannard, C
N1 - ID number: ISI:000171093300009
PY - 2001/6
Y1 - 2001/6
N2 - Patients with chronic pain often report negative and aversive rumination about pain and its consequences. Little is known about how and why patients with chronic pain worry. This study provides a description of worrying by chronic pain patients. Eighteen female and 16 male chronic pain patients reported, over a 7-day period, their experience of pain-related and non-pain-related worry. Results indicated that, in comparison with non-pain related worry, worry about chronic pain is experienced as more difficult to dismiss, more distracting, more attention grabbing, more intrusive, more distressing and less pleasant. Further analyses suggest that these characteristics of worry about chronic pain do not arise from a general disposition to worry or from a general disposition to anxiety. Worry is, however, related to awareness of somatic sensations. These results are discussed within an attentional model in which worry functions to maintain vigilance to threat.
AB - Patients with chronic pain often report negative and aversive rumination about pain and its consequences. Little is known about how and why patients with chronic pain worry. This study provides a description of worrying by chronic pain patients. Eighteen female and 16 male chronic pain patients reported, over a 7-day period, their experience of pain-related and non-pain-related worry. Results indicated that, in comparison with non-pain related worry, worry about chronic pain is experienced as more difficult to dismiss, more distracting, more attention grabbing, more intrusive, more distressing and less pleasant. Further analyses suggest that these characteristics of worry about chronic pain do not arise from a general disposition to worry or from a general disposition to anxiety. Worry is, however, related to awareness of somatic sensations. These results are discussed within an attentional model in which worry functions to maintain vigilance to threat.
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1053/eujp.2001.0252
U2 - 10.1053/eujp.2001.0252
DO - 10.1053/eujp.2001.0252
M3 - Article
SN - 1090-3801
VL - 5
SP - 309
EP - 318
JO - European Journal of Pain
JF - European Journal of Pain
IS - 3
ER -