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En Pointe: Dancers Report Their Pain Less Variably Than Do Controls
Rita Canaipa1, Diogo Mendonça2, Mariana Agostinho2
1Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Institute of Health Sciences, CIIS, Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Health, Palma de Cima, Lisbon, Portugal.
The Journal of Pain
|July 24, 2020
Summary
Professional dancers show less variable pain reports than controls, suggesting that focused attention training improves subjective pain reporting. This enhanced interoceptive awareness is crucial for accurate clinical pain assessment.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience and Psychology
- Pain Perception and Interoception
Background:
- Subjective pain assessment is challenging due to the lack of objective measures.
- Individual differences exist in reporting bodily sensations, with potential implications for pain management.
- Professional dancers may possess enhanced abilities in sensing and reporting bodily signals.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether professional dancers exhibit less variability in pain reports compared to healthy controls.
- To explore the relationship between years of practice, interoceptive awareness, and pain reporting variability in dancers.
Main Methods:
- An observational study involving 33 professional dancers and 33 age-matched healthy controls.
- Utilized the focused analgesia selection test (FAST) to measure pain report variability (ICC and R²).
- Included a taste perception task and the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA) questionnaire.
Main Results:
- Dancers demonstrated significantly less variability in pain reports compared to controls (P=.013).
- No significant difference in taste report variability was observed between groups.
- Years of practice in dancers positively correlated with pain reporting variability (ICC and R²).
- MAIA subscores related to emotional awareness and trust correlated with pain reporting variability.
Conclusions:
- Extensive training in body signal attention, characteristic of professional dancers, likely reduces pain report variability.
- Training interventions may enhance subjective pain reporting accuracy, benefiting clinical pain assessment and care.
- Interoceptive awareness, particularly emotional awareness and trust, is linked to more consistent pain reporting.
