Content area
Full text
Tamar Pincus*
Objectives. Two experiments investigating the presence of information-processing biases on tasks of attention (Stroop task) and memory (free recall) in relation to mood states in chronic pain patients are reported. The first investigates whether previously reported attentional bias is a function of pain status or mood state. The second describes a more detailed examination of the roles of anxiety and depression in processing biases in chronic pain patients.
Design and method. Both studies compared interference time on an emotional Stroop task between chronic pain patients and controls. Other measures included self-report of pain, depression and anxiety.
Results. Neither study found evidence for an attentional bias, although a memory recall bias was demonstrated.
Conclusions. Interference in attending to emotionally salient stimuli appears to be related to measures of anxiety and depression rather than pain per we. When added to the findings of other investigators, these results suggest that the presence of attentional biases in chronic pain patients can best be accounted for as arising from mood state rather than pain-patient status.
The investigation of information-processing biases underlying clinical disorders has become increasingly popular (see Eysenck, 1992; Williams, Watts, MacLeod & Matthews, 1988). Recently, investigators have sought to establish if chronic pain patients are characterized by specific processing biases by examining whether they process pain-related information differentially from normal controls on tasks of attention and memory. It is believed that the presence of such biases will result in increased patient distress and may be responsible for maintaining the pain experience in the absence of further organic injury.
There is now strong evidence to suggest that chronic pain patients exhibit a recall bias towards pain-related stimuli (Edwards, Pearce, Collett & Pugh, 1992; Pearce et al., 1990; Pincus, Pearce, McClelland & Turner-Stokes, 1993; Pincus, Pearce & McClelland, 1995). Moreover, there is some evidence to suggest that ambiguous information is processed as pain-related by such patients (Pincus, Pearce, McClelland, Farley & Vogel, 1994; Pincus, Pearce & Perrot, 1996a). However, the possible existence of an attentional bias towards pain-related material remains unclear. Whilst the only published study in this area does provide evidence for an attentional bias in pain patients (Pearce & Morley, 1989), a significant body of unpublished evidence exists which suggests that attentional biases are...