Pain expectation and situational anxiety impact on assessment of pain in Humans

ანოტაცია

A person’s sensitivity to pain is less when he/she is expecting a painful irritation, or has an experience of a similar feeling, otherwise the feeling of pain intensifies. Present paper examines whether the time duration of pain expectation affects pain assessment, whether pain assessment depends on the level of situational anxiety, and which brain structures are involved in the formulation of pain sensation. Questionnaires were used to assess the level of situational anxiety as well as the level of pain after the delivery of painful stimulus, EEG was recorded in three conditions: 1. When participant was forewarned about the pain expected in 10 min. 2. Delivery of pain immediately after warning, and 3. When painful stimulus was delivered without warning.   Quantitative data from the study were processed by the program SPSS, and the qualitative side through brain mapping method. The data obtained suggest warning in advance to minimize the sensitivity to pain as compared to the delivery of pain immediately after warning or without warning. Presumably, activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis in coordination with prefrontal cortex exerts an analgesic effect during pain expectation. The level of situational anxiety was found having no effect on pain assessment.