Chronic Pain and Emotional Stroop: A Systematic Review

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychology
• Pain Research

Background:

• Chronic pain involves sensory and emotional distress, often with depression, fatigue, and cognitive issues.
• Emotional dysregulation is implicated in chronic pain, influencing pain perception and behavior.
• The emotional Stroop task is valuable for exploring emotional processing and dysregulation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically review abnormalities in behavioral performance and brain activity in chronic pain patients using the emotional Stroop task.
• To integrate diverse findings on the emotional Stroop task in chronic pain research.
• To assess attentional biases and brain alterations during emotional stimuli processing in chronic pain.

Main Methods:

• Systematic review following Cochrane Collaboration guidelines and PRISMA statement.
• Searched PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases.
• Included 15 studies examining chronic pain patients and the emotional Stroop task.

Main Results:

• Identified alterations in brain regions associated with pain and emotional regulation in chronic pain patients.
• Observed attentional bias towards negative information and increased response times related to emotional load.
• Confirmed the emotional Stroop task's effectiveness in measuring emotions and selective attention.

Conclusions:

• The emotional Stroop task is crucial for research on emotional and attentional processes in chronic pain.
• Attentional bias towards negative information correlates with higher pain levels and greater activation in pain/emotion brain areas.
• Results support cognitive training and emotional interventions targeting attentional biases in chronic pain management.