This study examined the impact of threatening information on coping and pain tolerance in a healthy adult sample. Prior to engaging in a Cold Pressor Test (CPT), 121 college students were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: a threat condition in which they read an orienting passage warning them about symptoms and consequences of frostbite (pain as a signal for nociception), a reassurance condition in which they read an orienting passage about the safety of the CPT (pain independent of nociception), or a control condition in which no orienting passage was read before the experimental task. Only 15.6% of participants in the threat group completed the CPT to its 4-minute duration, compared with 55.6% in the reassurance group and 45.2% of those in the control group. Even though groups did not differ on level of reported pain, threatened participants catastrophized more about the pain and reported less use of cognitive coping strategies (reinterpreting pain sensations, ignoring pain, diverting attention away from pain to other experiences, and using coping self-statements) than other respondents. A path analysis indicated that the relation between threat and pain tolerance was fully mediated by catastrophizing and cognitive coping. Together, findings suggest that pain appraised as threatening contributes to a specific pattern of coping responses associated with a reduced capacity to bear pain.

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Rates of chronic pain in Chongqing appear to approximate to those reported in western countries. A significant minority of those affected report substantial or severe impairment and are more likely than less impaired cohorts to have sought medical interventions to manage pain.

In a sample of 70 chronic pain patients, hierarchical multiple regression analyses were utilized to assess the additive and interactive contributions of pain severity and psychological distress variables to neurocognitive performance across attention and concentration, memory, and reasoning ability domains. Although the full model predicting attention and concentration was found to be significant, there was no significant contribution of pain severity, psychological distress, or the Pain Severity x Psychological Distress interaction to the prediction of attention and concentration scores after controlling for the effect of years of formal education. After controlling for the effect of years of formal education, pain severity and psychological distress did make separate and significant contributions to the prediction of memory scores; however, the Pain Severity x Psychological Distress interaction did not significantly affect memory scores. After controlling for the effect of years of formal education, there was no significant contribution of pain severity, psychological distress, or the Pain Severity x Psychological Distress interaction to reasoning ability scores. Results suggest the importance of assessing memory function when managing psychologically distressed chronic pain patients.

Chronic pain and posttraumatic stress symptoms in litigating motor vehicle accident victims are associated with increased physical and psychological morbidity.

This meta-analysis indicates presurgery emotional distress has significant associations with postoperative outcomes but specific methodological factors and sample characteristics contribute to effect size variability in the literature. Considering emotional distress within presurgical assessment protocols may aid in identifying vulnerable patients who can benefit from interventions targeting distress reductions.

Results underscored the potential utility of considering specific pre-surgery pain- and surgery-related beliefs as factors that predict patient experiences of acute and chronic post-operative pain.

Because physical injuries occur so frequently and are associated with significant mortality and morbidity, these injuries have been acknowledged as a worldwide public health concern. While the greatest cost associated with physical injury is the loss of life, non-fatal injuries are associated with significant personal and societal costs. Traditionally, examinations of the personal costs of physical injuries have emphasized functional losses and limitations, in addition to resulting losses in work productivity and income earning power. Efforts to capture the societal costs associated with physical injury have emphasized medical expenditures related to their treatment as well as costs related to lost work performance and disability compensation. Less emphasized but possibly more relevant to post-injury functional outcomes is the experience of psychological distress that frequently accompanies injury-related changes in function and overall quality of life. Any calculation of the true cost of physical injuries must include a reckoning of their impact on psychological health and the interactive influence of physical and psychological injuries on immediate and long-term recovery of function. In the current article, we briefly summarize data pertaining to the prevalence and cost of physical injuries; we briefly describe the more common consequences of physical injury, including injuryrelated limitations in physical function, pain and pain-related limitations in physical function, occupational impairment, psychological distress, and impairment in interpersonal relating; we review select theoretical models that are considered to explain the transition from physical injury to disabilities and we identify the pre-, peri-, and post-injury influence of physical and psychological health on injury management, recovery of function, risk of re-injury, and disability.