Attention, not anxiety, influences pain

Pain, Spirituality, and Meaning Making: What Can We Learn from the Literature?

“…Although longterm meditators reported experiencing less unpleasantness than the novice meditators in both types of meditation, open monitoring produced a more significant reduction than focused attention. The study supports the findings from Arntz, Dreesen, and Meickelbach [62] who found that attention to pain was related to a stronger pain impact, and from Kingston, Chadwick, Meron and Skinner [63] who found decreased pain ratings and an increased ability to tolerate a cold pressor pain stimulus after subjects participated in a mindfulness training program that taught them to cultivate an open non-judgmental, non-reactive response to pain. Interestingly, these forms of meditation suggest decreased cognitive interaction with pain, (e.g., decreased meaning making), resulting in a positive reduction in the pain experience for the individual.…”

Highly anxious dental patients report more pain during dental injections

“…Arntz and collegues claim that this is due to attentional mechanisms. [3][4][5][6] This claim is supported by more recent studies stating that anxi ety or fear can have a pain-increasing effect due to attentional bias towards the painful stimulus 7 or pain-related sensa tions. 8 According to Litt,9 nowhere is the relationship between anxiety and pain better seen than in dentistry.…”

Irrational Suffering – An Impact of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy on the Depression Level and the Perception of Pain in Cancer Patients

“…The patient's attitude is of prime importance. The anticipation of suffering contributes to hypervigilance and thus raises the risk of the occurrence and/or intensification of pain (Arntz et al, 1991;Leeuw et al, 2007). On the other hand, the placebo effect represents the opposite phenomenon.…”