Attentional Engagement for Pain-Related Information among Individuals with Chronic Pain: The Role of Pain Catastrophizing

Although the evidence of the attentional bias of chronic pain individuals toward pain-related information is established in the literature, few studies examined the time course of attention toward pain stimuli and the role of pain catastrophizing on attentional engagement toward pain-related information. This study examined the time course of attention to pain-related information and the role of pain catastrophizing on attentional engagement for pain-related information. Participants were fifty young adult participants with chronic pain (35% male, 65% female; M = 21.8 years) who completed self-report questionnaires assessing pain catastrophizing levels (Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS)), depression (the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D)), anxiety (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI)), and pain disability (the Pain Disability Index: (PDI)). Attentional engagements to pain- and anger-related information were measured by the eye tracker. Significant interaction effects were found between (1) time and stimulus type for pain-related information (F (5, 245) = 11.55, p < 0.001) and (2) bias scores and pain catastrophizing (F (1, 48) = 6.736, p < 0.05). These results indicated that the degree of increase for pain bias scores were significantly greater than anger bias scores as levels of pain catastrophizing increased. Results of the present study provided the evidence for the attentional bias and information processing model which has clinical implications; high levels of pain catastrophizing may impair individuals' ability to cope with chronic pain by increasing attentional engagement toward pain-related information. The present study can add knowledge to attentional bias and pain research as this study investigated the time course of attention and the role of pain catastrophizing on attentional engagement toward pain-related information for adults with chronic pain conditions.