Deficient modulation of pain by a positive emotional context in fibromyalgia patients.

[Ecoclimber]

Pain. 2013 Jun 7. pii: S0304-3959(13)00296-0. doi: 10.1016/j.pain.2013.06.003. [Epub ahead of print]
Deficient modulation of pain by a positive emotional context in fibromyalgia patients.
Kamping S, Bomba IC, Kanske P, Diesch E, Flor H.
Source
Department of Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany. Electronic address: sandra.kamping@zi-mannheim.de.


Abstract

We aimed to investigate the modulating effects of emotional context on pain perception in 16 patients with fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) and 16 healthy control (HC) subjects. An infrared laser was used to apply individually adapted painful stimuli to the dorsum of the left hand. The emotional background of the painful stimuli was modulated by concurrent presentations of negative, neutral, and positive picture stimuli selected from the International Affective Picture System. As control conditions, painful stimuli and the pictures were also presented by themselves.

During each of the five laser-picture trials, subjects received 10 painful stimuli and were asked to rate the average intensity and unpleasantness of the experienced pain. Functional magnetic resonance-images were obtained, using a T2∗ sensitive echo planar sequence. HC subjects showed a linear increase in pain intensity and unpleasantness ratings when painful stimuli where presented during positive, neutral, and negative pictures.

n contrast, FMS patients showed a quadratic trend for pain intensity ratings indicating a lack of pain reduction by the positive pictures. In addition, the FMS patients showed less activation in secondary somatosensory cortex, insula, orbitofrontal cortex, and anterior cingulate cortex during the positive picture pain trials. Our results suggest that fibromyalgia patients are less efficient in modulating pain by positive affect and may benefit less from appetitive events than healthy controls.
Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Eco

 

[Mark]

In my own case I've suspected for some time that my pain issues (itching/allodynia/neuropathy) function as some kind of inability to 'cancel out' or modulate pain stimuli. Tiny 'itches' from minor contact just grow and grow and never seem to 'cancel out' - and I used to be pretty good at meditation but there's just no way of ignoring or working through these particular painful sensations. So my guess is that it's not just inability to modulate pain by positive affect, but a wider failure of pain modulation generally that's at work here.

 

[xchocoholic]

So, if I understand this correctly .. they took 16 Fibro patients, submitted them to 10 episodes of pain accompanied by either pictures of a kitten, dead body or stack of concrete blocks and rated how they responsed to each episode.

And those with Fibro didn't respond as well as the HCs to the kitten pictures ?

So they concluded that Fibro patients respond less to appetitive events than HCs.

Is there a point to this study ? OR did I read this wrong ?

 

[Valentijn]

So, if I understand this correctly .. they took 16 Fibro patients, submitted them to 10 episodes of pain accompanied by either pictures of a kitten, dead body or stack of concrete blocks and rated how they responsed to each episode.

And those with Fibro didn't respond as well as the HCs to the kitten pictures ?

So they concluded that Fibro patients respond less to appetitive events than HCs.

Is there a point to this study ? OR did I read this wrong ?

Obviously FM patients hate kittens

 

[xchocoholic]

Obviously FM patients hate kittens

That's it. ; )

I was thinking that if any patient in pain was subjected to a study like this, they'd be so irritated that some researcher wasted their time and caused them more pain, that nothing could make them smile. I'd have been thinking the dead body was that of
the person testing me. Lol.