Written emotional disclosure of trauma and trauma history alter pain sensitivity

The present study investigated whether written emotional disclosure of trauma and trauma history alters sensitivity to experimental pain in healthy women. We examined the immediate affective and physiological effects of written emotional disclosure and evaluated the pain modulatory effects of this personally relevant method of affect induction in women with and without trauma history. Participants wrote for 20 minutes about a traumatic or neutral topic prior to the thermal pain threshold and the ischemic pain tolerance tests. Written disclosure of trauma increased negative affect and skin conductance, which resulted in increased pain sensitivity on heat threshold tests. Trauma history was associated with lower basal ischemic pain tolerance under the neutral writing condition; however, this effect was reversed by disclosure of trauma, suggesting that preexisting differences in pain sensitivity and pain modulation may be related to lifetime history of trauma.

These findings indicate that written emotional disclosure provides an effective method for inducing personally relevant affect that is sufficient to modulate pain. History of trauma was related to reduced pain tolerance and enhanced stress-induced hypoalgesia, which underscores the need for further research to examine the extent to which prior history of trauma alters pain processing.