TY  - JOUR
A1  - Pauli, Paul
A1  - Schwenzer, Michael
A1  - Brody, Stuart
A1  - Rau, Harald
A1  - Birbaumer, Niels
T1  - Hypochondriacal attitudes, pain sensitivity, and attentional bias
N2  - The relation between hypochondriacal attitudes, thermal pain threshold, and attentional bias toward pain was examined in a non-clinical population (N = 28). Attentional bias was operationalized with a concentration-performance test, which subjects performed while connected to a pain stimulator. Subjects were informed that they would receive a painful stimulus during the second part of the test, while the first part was introduced as pain-free. The pain stimulus was never applied during the test phase. The expectancy of a forthcoming pain stimulus reduced the performance of high hypochondriacal subjects in both parts of the test. Low hypochondriacal subjects, on the other hand, displayed significantly better performance in the first, pain-free compared to the second, pain-related part of the test. Thermal pain thresholds were assessed at four measuring sites (thenar, neck, collar-bone, abdomen), but no relations with hypochondriasis sum scores and locus of pain stimulation were found. A stepwise multiple regression of pain threshold by individual Illness Attitude Scales (IAS) led to 66% of the variance being explained by the scales ‘concern about pain’, ‘worry about illness’, and ‘disease phobia’. Results are discussed in terms of amplifying somatic style, preoccupation with or attentional bias toward bodily symptoms, and experimental induction of a hypochondriacal state.
Y1  - 1993
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-32617
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Pauli, Paul
A1  - Rau, Harald
A1  - Zhuang, Ping
A1  - Brody, Stuart
A1  - Birbaumer, Niels
T1  - Effects of smoking on thermal pain threshold in deprived and minimally-deprived habitual smokers
N2  - This study examined the antinociceptive effects of smoking in nine habitual smokers under deprived (12 h) and minimally-deprived (< 30min) conditions. Pain threshold for thermal stimuli, heart rate, blood pressure and ratings of mood, arousal, dominance and well-being were assessed before and after smoking a cigarette. Overall, smoking affected all measured variables in the expected direction, leading to increased physiological activity, elevated pain threshold and improved mood. However, most of these effects depended on the deprivation status of the subjects, such that smoking after deprivation increased pain threshold whereas smoking after minimal deprivation did not. Pain threshold before smoking was the same for both groups. Deprived subjects had lower pre-smoke diastolic blood pressure, heart rate, and arousal levels, which rose to equal minimally-deprived subjects scores after smoking.
KW  - Pain threshold ; Smoking ; Nicotine ; Acute tolerance ; Deprivation ; Psychophysiologicat measures
Y1  - 1993
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-32607
ER  -