Parental emotion and pain control behaviour when faced with child’s pain: the emotion regulatory role of parental pain-related attention-set shifting and heart rate variability

in Pain (2018)

, The present study investigated the moderating role of parental pain-related attention-set shifting and heart rate variability (HRV) for parental distress and pain control behaviour when faced with their ... [more ▼]

, The present study investigated the moderating role of parental pain-related attention-set shifting and heart rate variability (HRV) for parental distress and pain control behaviour when faced with their child’s pain. Participants were 54 school children and one of their parents. Parental HRV was assessed at study commencement followed by a cued switching task indexing parental ability to flexibly shift attention between pain-related and neutral attentional sets. In a subsequent phase, parents observed their child perform a CPT task, allowing assessment of parental pain control behavior (indexed by latency to stop their child’s CPT performance) and parental distress – assessed via self-report following observation of child CPT performance. Findings indicated that parental facilitated attentional shifting (i.e., engage) towards a pain-related attentional set contributed to higher levels of pain control behaviour when faced with increasing levels of chid facial display of pain. Pain control behaviour amongst parents who demonstrated impeded attentional shifting to a pain-related attentional set was equally pronounced regardless of low or high levels of child pain expression. Parental ability to shift attention away (i.e., disengage) from a pain related set to a neutral set did not impact findings. Results further indicated that whereas high levels of parental HRV buffers the impact of child facial pain display upon parental emotional distress and pain control behaviour, low levels of HRV constitute a risk factor for higher levels of parental distress and pain control behaviour when faced with increased child facial pain display. Theoretical/clinical implications and further research directions are discussed. [less ▲]

Affective instability in patients with chronic pain: a diary approach

in Pain (2016), 157(8), 1783-1790

Affective instability, conceptualized as fluctuations in mood over time, has been related to ill-health and psychopathology. In this study we examined the role of affective instability upon daily pain ... [more ▼]

Affective instability, conceptualized as fluctuations in mood over time, has been related to ill-health and psychopathology. In this study we examined the role of affective instability upon daily pain outcomes in 70 chronic pain patients (Mage = 49.7 years; 46 females) using an end-of-day diary. During a baseline phase, patients completed self-reported questionnaires of pain severity, pain duration, disability, depression and anxiety. During a subsequent diary phase, patients filled out an electronic end-of-day diary over 14 consecutive days assessing daily levels of pain severity, disability, cognitive complaints, negative affect (NA) and positive affect (PA). Affective instability was operationalized as the mean square of successive differences (MSSD) in daily mood (separately for NA and PA), which takes into account the size of affective changes over consecutive days. Results indicated that NA instability was positively associated with daily disability, beyond the effects of daily pain severity. Furthermore, NA instability moderated the relationship between daily pain severity and daily disability and the relationship between daily pain severity and daily cognitive complaints. PA instability, however showed to be unrelated to all outcomes. Current findings extend previous results and reveal the putative role of affective instability upon pain-related outcomes and may yield important clinical implications. Indeed, they suggest that targeting NA instability by improving emotion regulation skills may be a strategy to diminish disability and cognitive complaints in patients with chronic pain. [less ▲]

The relationship between emotion regulation capacity, heart rate variability, and quality of life in individuals with alcohol-related brain damage

in Psychology Research and Behavior Management (2016), 9

The reliable measurement of quality of life (QoL) presents a challenge in individuals with alcohol-related brain damage. This study investigated vagally mediated heart rate variability (vmHRV) as a ... [more ▼]

The reliable measurement of quality of life (QoL) presents a challenge in individuals with alcohol-related brain damage. This study investigated vagally mediated heart rate variability (vmHRV) as a physiological predictor of QoL. Self- and proxy ratings of QoL and dysexecutive symptoms were collected once, while vmHRV was repeatedly assessed over a 3-week period at weekly intervals in a sample of nine alcohol-related brain damaged patients. We provide robustness checks, bootstrapped correlations with confidence intervals, and standard errors for mean scores. We observed low to very low heart rate variability scores in our patients in comparison to norm values found in healthy populations. Proxy ratings of the QoL scale “subjective physical and mental performance” and everyday executive dysfunctions were strongly related to vmHRV. Better proxy-rated QoL and fewer dysexecutive symptoms were observed in those patients with higher vmHRV. Overall, patients showed low parasympathetic activation favoring the occurrence of dysfunctional emotion regulation strategies. [less ▲]

Inter-individual differences in cardiovascular reactivity and the perception of the thermal grill illusion of pain

Speeches/Talks (2015)

Background: Evidence has been given that there exists a functional relationship between the cardiovascular and the pain regulatory system. Alterations in blood pressure and concomitant changes in ... [more ▼]

Background: Evidence has been given that there exists a functional relationship between the cardiovascular and the pain regulatory system. Alterations in blood pressure and concomitant changes in baroreceptor activation contribute to the modulation of pain sensitivity It could be shown that blood pressure, baroreflex sensitivity, and cardiac vagal tone (indexed by heart rate variability, HRV) are inversely associated to pain sensitivity. We aimed assessing the same cardiovascular parameters in a thermal grill paradigm to test the assumption of a relationship between inter-individual differences in autonomic cardiac control and the perception of the thermal grill illusion of pain (TGI). Methods: All participants (N = 52) were stimulated three times during one minute with the temperatures of 15°C and 41°C set at the interlaced cold and warm bars of the water-bath driven thermal grill. Blood pressure and heart rate were recorded concomitantly. Numerical rating scales (NRS; 0–100) were used to quantify subjective paradoxical pain intensity and pain unpleasantness perceptions. Results: A positive association between cardiac vagal tone and paradoxical pain sensitivity could be revealed. Higher resting HRV, as expressed by higher respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), made it overall more likely to perceive the TGI. In contrast, blood pressure and the susceptibility to the TGI were inversely related. Volunteers displaying higher spontaneous blood pressure values in the first thermal grill stimulation phase did not feel the illusive pain as compared to those who presented significantly lower sympathetic arousal and perceived the TGI. Conclusion: The present physiological findings complement previous evidence of an impact of psychological characteristics on the individual disposition to paradoxical pain perceptions. [less ▲]

Perseverative Cognition in Fibromyalgia

Scientific Conference (2014, September 04)

The influence of emotional instability on daily pain outcomes in chronic pain patients

Poster (2014, May)