Decreasing pain tolerance outside of awareness

Meerman, Esther E.; Verkuil, Bart; Brosschot, J. F.

doi:10.1016/j.jpsychores.2010.08.006

Cited by 16 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…In sum, our current study with methodological improvements could not confirm the evidence found in the previous study and therefore does not yield support for the theory that an activated illness memory network causes increased symptom reporting [1,3]. However, it is possible that support would be obtained with more intensely physically threatening primes, since we removed one such prime in the current study.…”

Section: Introductioncontrasting

confidence: 85%

“…It has been hypothesized that complaints without any medical origin are the result of illness-related memory networks, which cause increased selective attention towards innocuous bodily signals, and in turn cause increased detection, interpretation and reporting of these signals as complaints [1][2][3].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In our previous study [3] we used a subliminal priming technique with illness words, which keeps the participants unaware of the primes, to assess whether an activated illness memory network could influence pain tolerance, and hence support the theoretical model mentioned above. We used words describing common health-complaints (HC) to activate illness-related memory and we compared the pain tolerance of participants primed with these HC words to participants that were shown neutral words (NEU).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To keep the word frequency, length and syllables the same among the categories, we changed the word "evil" into "fake" for the NEG group. The subliminal priming task consisted of a computer task presented to the participants as a reaction time task and was exactly the same as in our previous study [3]. Again, we used a cold pressor task (CPT) for pain stimulation, for which participants are asked to keep their non-dominant hand ice-cold water for as long as they can.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The effect of priming illness memory on pain tolerance: A failed replication

Meerman

Brosschot

Verkuil

2012

Journal of Psychosomatic Research

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Section: Introductioncontrasting

confidence: 85%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

The effect of priming illness memory on pain tolerance: A failed replication

Meerman

Brosschot

Verkuil

2012

Journal of Psychosomatic Research

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“…However, in a recent study, this possibility was circumvented by presenting illness related words using subliminal priming, which is a common technique to activate cognitive memory networks without conscious awareness, by using stimuli that were not consciously perceived by the participants. This study found that subliminal priming with illness related words resulted in lower pain tolerance as well (Meerman, Verkuil, & Brosschot, 2011). Taken together, although most research has focused on increased attention and reporting of somatic complaints, it seems there is also evidence for activated illness memory being involved in the reporting of somatic complaints.…”

Section: Please Scroll Down For Articlementioning

confidence: 61%

The effects of a positive health priming intervention on somatic complaints

Meerman

Brosschot

Verkuil

2013

Psychology & Health

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Somatic complaints are common and form a major burden. Previous studies suggested that such complaints might be increased by 'illness-related memory', for example due to worries about health. In this ambulatory study we tested whether we could decrease somatic complaints through enhancing the activation of health-related memory by a 'positive health'-priming intervention. Forty-three students were randomly assigned to the 'positive health'-group or a control group. Using online measures, participants reported negative affect (NA) and somatic complaints for a period of six days, while each morning performing the priming task. The intervention caused a decrease in somatic complaints but only for participants with low trait NA or low somatosensory amplification. These findings seem to suggest that priming or other interventions directed at activating positive health memory might reduce health complaints, but only in certain subgroups.

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Effects of subtle cognitive manipulations on placebo analgesia – An implicit priming study

Rosén

Kirsch

et al. 2016

European Journal of Pain

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BackgroundExpectancy is widely accepted as a key contributor to placebo effects. However, it is not known whether non‐conscious expectancies achieved through semantic priming may contribute to placebo analgesia. In this study, we investigated if an implicit priming procedure, where participants were unaware of the intended priming influence, affected placebo analgesia.MethodsIn a double‐blind experiment, healthy participants (n = 36) were randomized to different implicit priming types; one aimed at increasing positive expectations and one neutral control condition. First, pain calibration (thermal) and a credibility demonstration of the placebo analgesic device were performed. In a second step, an independent experimenter administered the priming task; Scrambled Sentence Test. Then, pain sensitivity was assessed while telling participants that the analgesic device was either turned on (placebo) or turned off (baseline). Pain responses were recorded on a 0–100 Numeric Response Scale.ResultsOverall, there was a significant placebo effect (p < 0.001), however, the priming conditions (positive/neutral) did not lead to differences in placebo outcome. Prior experience of pain relief (during initial pain testing) correlated significantly with placebo analgesia (p < 0.001) and explained 34% of placebo variance. Trait neuroticism correlated positively with placebo analgesia (p < 0.05) and explained 21% of placebo variance.ConclusionsPriming is one of many ways to influence behaviour, and non‐conscious activation of positive expectations could theoretically affect placebo analgesia. Yet, we found no SST priming effect on placebo analgesia. Instead, our data point to the significance of prior experience of pain relief, trait neuroticism and social interaction with the treating clinician.SignificanceOur findings challenge the role of semantic priming as a behavioural modifier that may shape expectations of pain relief, and affect placebo analgesia.

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Decreasing pain tolerance outside of awareness

Cited by 16 publications

References 40 publications

The effect of priming illness memory on pain tolerance: A failed replication

The effect of priming illness memory on pain tolerance: A failed replication

The effects of a positive health priming intervention on somatic complaints

Effects of subtle cognitive manipulations on placebo analgesia – An implicit priming study

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