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456 ATTENTIONAL BIASES IN CHRONIC LOW BACK PAIN PATIENTS: THE MEDIATING ROLE OF GENERAL DISTRESS AND PAIN‐RELATED COGNITIONS
Author(s) -
Karimi Z.,
Roelofs J.,
Hasenbring M.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
european journal of pain
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.305
H-Index - 109
eISSN - 1532-2149
pISSN - 1090-3801
DOI - 10.1016/s1090-3801(09)60459-6
Subject(s) - distress , psychology , cognition , chronic pain , psychological distress , psychiatry , clinical psychology , mental health
Background and Aims: Evidence supporting the assumption that attentional biases have an impact on the development of chronic pain is mixed. The present study sought to replicate and extend findings obtained with the pictorial dot-probe task that indicate attentional biases in chronic low back pain (CLBP) patients. Methods: Performances of 24 CLBP patients were compared with those of 24 subjects with no or less pain on a visual dotprobe task with pain associated and pain neutral pictures. Three indices served as performance indicators: the bias index (BI), the congruency index (CI), and the incongruency index (ICI). Separate repeated-measures ANOVA were performed with the three indices. Furthermore, the relation between measures of general distress (anxiety, depression), fear-avoidance-cognitions (fear of movement, catastrophizing, fear-avoidance-beliefs) and endurance-related cognitions (minimization, thought suppression) were examined. Results: For all three indices the main effect of picture category was significant. Furthermore, for the CI the main effect of patient group was significant. Concerning ICI, there was a trend to an interaction between picture category and patient group. Bivariate correlations revealed a significant correlation between the BI and catastrophizing. CI and ICI were significantly related to general distress (state/trait anxiety, depression), and to fear-avoidance beliefs. No correlations were found between endurance-cognitions and indices. Conclusions: The results of the present investigation support the hypothesis that pain alone does not account for attentional biases in CLBP patients. However, self-report characteristics mediate selective attentional processing in CLBP patients.