The cognitive specificity of associative responses in patients with chronic pain.

Objective: Previous studies have found evidence of an associative response bias for patients with chronic pain. This body of research is not clear, however, on whether this bias is specific to patients with chronic pain, or whether the bias is specific to pain stimuli or illness/disability stimuli.

Design: This is a cross-sectional study involving the comparison of selected groups (chronic pain, acute pain, and medical-staff controls).

Method: This study included 80 male participants with chronic pain, 50 male participants with acute pain, and 49 male participants who served as medical staff controls. All participants completed the Beck Depression Inventory, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, a pain intensity VAS, and the single-word associate homographic response task.

Results: Evidence was found for the specificity of pain responses to homographic pain stimuli as the chronic pain group produced more of these responses than the two comparison groups.

Conclusions: These findings were seen as providing evidence for an associative response bias. This bias appears specific to pain-related stimuli and reflects the cumulative effects of pain over a period of time.