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Updated: May 30, 2026

Dynamic Quantitative Sensory Testing to Characterize Central Pain Processing
Published on: February 16, 2017
[Cognitive and affective aspects of pain]
Javier García Campayo1, Baltasar Rodero
1Área de Psiquiatría, Hospital Miguel Servet, Universidad de Zaragoza, España.
Abstract:
The influence of cognitive and emotional variables in the perception of pain is currently subject to no doubt, with the admittance that both the intensity and the characteristics of pain are influenced by the subject's cognitive processing. Catastrophism and acceptance seem to be the psychological constructs that are better able to explain the results of treatment applied to pathologies that are accompanied by pain (e.g. fibromyalgia), sometimes having more importance than even the intensity of pain. This review will attempt to describe the main cognitive constructs implicated in pain and the way they act.
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