The effect of catastrophizing self-statements on pain perception and the nociceptive flexor reflex (RIII reflex).

Objectives: Pain catastrophizing, an excessively negative cognitive and emotional orientation toward pain, is one of the most important psychological determinants of the individual pain experience. The neural basis of the association between catastrophizing and enhanced pain perception is only incompletely understood. Recently, several forms of pain modulation by cognitive and emotional factors have been found to at least partly rely on descending pain modulatory pathways that govern spinal gating mechanisms.

The effect of distraction strategies on pain perception and the nociceptive flexor reflex (RIII reflex).

Distraction from pain reduces pain perception, and imaging studies have suggested that this may at least partially be mediated by activation of descending pain inhibitory systems. Here, we used the nociceptive flexor reflex (RIII reflex) to directly quantify the effects of different distraction strategies on basal spinal nociception and its temporal summation. Twenty-seven healthy subjects participated in 3 distraction tasks (mental imagery, listening to preferred music, spatial discrimination of brush stimuli) and, in a fourth task, concentrated on the painful stimulus.