Open AccessFear of Pain Across the Adult Life Span
Author(s) -
Casey D. Wright,
Daniel W. McNeil
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
pain medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.893
H-Index - 97
eISSN - 1526-4637
pISSN - 1526-2375
DOI - 10.1093/pm/pnaa390
Subject(s) - anxiety , association (psychology) , pain catastrophizing , chronic pain , medicine , life span , cross sectional study , psychology , orofacial pain , clinical psychology , psychiatry , physical therapy , gerontology , pathology , psychotherapist
Pain continues to be an important public health concern, especially given the opioid crisis in industrialized countries. It is important to understand the association between emotions such as fear and anxiety and the experience of pain as both a physiological and affective experience. Fear or anxiety about pain is in fact a well-known predictor of and close associate of pain. Nociception and pain history differ depending on age, yet little empirical evidence exists on how fear of pain varies over the life span. The purpose of this study was to provide a cross-sectional examination of the relations between age and fear of pain across the adult life span.