Preliminary Validation of the Pain Relief Motivation Scales.

OBJECTIVES: Pain typically prompts individuals to seek relief. This study aimed to develop and psychometrically validate the Pain Relief Motivation Scales, applying revised "reinforcement sensitivity theory" to measure the neuropsychological systems underlying motivation for pain relief. We hypothesized a 6-factor structure based on previous work, including one Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS) factor, one Fight-Flight-Freeze System factor, and 4 Behavioral Activation System (BAS) factors. METHODS: Items were generated by adapting the reinforcement sensitivity theory of personality questionnaire for relevance to pain relief. Adults with chronic pain were recruited internationally to participate in online survey batteries at baseline and 1 week later in 2021. We randomly split the sample to conduct exploratory factor analysis (n = 253) and confirmatory factor analysis (n = 253). Psychometric properties were estimated using the full sample (N = 506). RESULTS: Parallel analysis revealed that a 5-factor structure best fits the data (21 items): (1) hopelessness about pain relief (BIS), (2) hesitancy for engaging in pain treatments (BIS), (3) persistence in engaging in pain treatments (BAS), (4) relief reactivity (BAS), and (5) risky relief seeking (BAS). Acceptable internal consistency (Cronbach alpha = 0.68 to 0.80) and test-retest reliability (Intraclass correlation coefficients = 0.71 to 0.88) were observed. Construct validity varied from weak to moderate ( r = 0.02 to 0.45). CONCLUSION: As the first attempt to create an instrument measuring neuropsychological systems underlying motivation for pain relief, the findings show that additional work is needed to refine theory and psychometric rigor in this area. Cautiously, the results suggest that a BIS-BAS model, with minimal Fight-Flight-Freeze System contributions, might be useful for understanding the motivation for relief.

A pilot test of Internet-delivered brief interactive training sessions for depression: Evaluating dropout, uptake, adherence, and outcome.

OBJECTIVE: Uptake, adherence, and dropout rates for Internet-based programs for depression are in need of improvement. Excessive user burden (eg, heavy content, extended duration) may undermine engagement and precipitate dropout. To address this problem, an alternative format was proposed: Brief Interactive Training Sessions (BITS). BITS target a narrow behavioral health skill and require 3-4 hours to complete. A depression-focused version of BITS that provides training in cognitive distortion/restructuring was tested. PARTICIPANTS: Fifty-two depressed college students were randomly assigned to BITS or to a wait-list. METHODS: Students competed pre-and post-test (7 week) assessments of depression and cognitive distortions. RESULTS: Uptake rate was 83%. Among study completers, adherence was 96%. The dropout rate did not improve. Compared to the control group, the experimental group reported a significant reduction in depression and in cognitive distortions. CONCLUSIONS: The BITS format is a promising vehicle for improving uptake and adherence while achieving positive clinical outcomes.

Adherence versus striving to adhere to vegan, vegetarian, or pescatarian diets: Applying a goal-centered, self-regulatory framework.

Adherence to plant-rich diets remains low despite numerous health benefits accruing to such practices. We sought to distinguish college students who report high adherence to a plant-rich diet ("Sustainers") from those who are less successful ("Strivers"). Sustainers more strongly endorsed multiple ethical dietary motives and indicated stronger allegiance to their values compared to Strivers, who rated health reasons more highly. Sustainers scored better on seven factors relating to effective dietary goal pursuit. Results underscore the importance of motivational factors in the maintenance of plant-based eating.

Acute pain impairs sustained attention.

Pain affects the lives of many individuals by creating physical, psychological, and economic burdens. A critical psychological factor negatively affected by pain is one's ability to sustain attention. In order to better understand the effect of pain on sustained attention we conducted three experiments utilizing the psychomotor vigilance task, thought probes, and pupillometry. In Experiment 1, participants in acute pain exhibited overall poorer task performance. However, this effect was localized to the relative frequency and duration of the participants' slowest responses with their faster responses being equivalent to a no-pain control group. In Experiment 2, we replicated the procedure and included periodic thought probes to overtly measure subjective experiences during the task. Participants in pain reported fewer "on-task" thoughts and more thoughts directed toward the source of their pain. In Experiment 3, we replicated the procedure while simultaneously tracking pupillary dynamics using an eye-tracker. Participants in pain had smaller task-evoked pupillary responses, which is thought to be an indicator of task engagement. However, the behavioral effects of pain from Experiments 1 and 2 were not replicated in Experiment 3. Taken together, pain led to poorer performance in the form of an increase in the relative frequency and extremeness of slow responses, increases in off-task thoughts, and reductions in a physiological indicator of task engagement. These data speak to theories of how pain competes with task goals for attention and negatively impacts behavior. The broader implications of this work are the identification of a low-level mechanism by which pain can interfere with normal cognitive functioning. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

How Pain Shapes Depression and Anxiety: A Hybrid Self-regulatory/Predictive Mind Perspective.

Because many persons living with chronic pain achieve a relatively balanced lifestyle without experiencing functional disability, medical psychologists must explain the well-documented co-occurrence of pain complaints and DSM-5-disorders (including but not limited to depression and anxiety) in a significant subset of individuals. The question of differential resilience versus susceptibility has received modest theoretical and empirical attention, but remains open. In this review, I deconstruct the temporally extended pain adaptation process in order to address this vexing question, relying upon two complementary explanatory frames. The first is a motivational/cybernetic systems formulation labeled the Goal-Centered, Self-Regulatory, Automated Social Systems Psychology (GRASSP) model, erected upon feedback sensitive, goal-guided, hierarchically organized self-regulatory processes. Depression and anxiety presumably result from compromised regulatory functions undermining pain processing, goal pursuit, and everyday performance. The second perspective postulates a "Bayesian Brain"/"Predictive Mind" capable of unifying perception, action, and emotion via predictive processing. From a Bayesian perspective, predictive processing implies that our brains evolved to compare, without conscious direction, incoming environmental information against prior, model-based predictions in order to arrive at accurate perceptual representations of the world. Maladjustment results from failures of active inference. When applied to the perception of visceral information, the embodied process, termed interoceptive inference, can also yield pathogenic outcomes. The Bayesian model holds that depression and anxiety in individuals with pain result from error-prone (biased, rigid, or highly certain) prior evaluations of aversive feeling states and their relation to the external milieu. I consider how the hybrid conceptual framework advanced by the two models points to several novel and familiar avenues of intervention.

A goal-systems perspective on plant-based eating: keys to successful adherence in university students.

OBJECTIVE: To explore adherence to a plant-based diet from the perspective of goals- and motivations-based systems. DESIGN: A cross-sectional, survey-based study was conducted regarding eating patterns, goals and motivations for current eating habits. SETTING: Data were collected using an online survey platform, including the Goal Systems Assessment Battery (GSAB) and other survey tools. PARTICIPANTS: University students were recruited, including thirty-three students reporting successful maintenance of a plant-based diet (Adherents) and sixty-three students trying to adhere to a plant-based diet (Non-adherents). RESULTS: Using GSAB subscale scores, discriminant function analyses significantly differentiated adherents v. non-adherents, accounting for 49·0 % of between-group variance (χ2 (13) = 42·03, P < 0·000). It correctly classified 72·7 % of adherents and 88·9 % of non-adherents. Constructs including value, self-efficacy, planning/stimulus control and positive affect were significant and included in the discriminant function. Logistic regression results suggested that participants who successfully adhered to a plant-based diet were seventeen times more likely to report 'To manage or treat a medical condition' as motivation and almost seven times more likely to report 'To align with my ethical beliefs' as motivation compared with non-adherents. However, these participants were 94 % less likely to report 'To maintain and/or improve my health' as motivation compared with non-adherents. Controlling for motivations, hierarchical logistic regression showed that only planning as part of the GSAB self-regulatory system predicted adherence to a plant-based diet. CONCLUSIONS: Values-based approaches to plant-based diets, including consideration for ethical beliefs, self-efficacy and proper planning, may be key for successful maintenance of this diet long-term.

Examining the Adjustment Patterns of Adults With Multiple Chronic Pain Conditions and Multiple Pain Sites: More Pain, No Gain.

The present study examined how multiple chronic pain conditions and pain sites are associated with sociodemographics, chronic pain adjustment profiles, and emotional distress. A total of 2,407 individuals who reported at least 6 months of having consistent pain severity, pain interference, and/or emotional burden due to pain were recruited through random digit dialing across the United States. Participants' chronic pain adjustment profiles (ie, pain intensity, pain interference, emotional burden, pain catastrophizing, pain coping, pain attitudes, and social resources) were assessed. Anxiety and depressive symptoms were also measured using a subsample of 181 participants who provided 3-month follow-up data. More than 60% of individuals with chronic pain reported having multiple pain conditions. Middle-aged single women with fibromyalgia, disability and of low socioeconomic status reported a greater number of pain conditions and pain sites. Structural equation modeling revealed that a higher number of pain conditions and sites were associated with more dysfunctional chronic pain adjustment profiles. The subsample analyses showed that reporting a greater number of pain conditions predicted a higher level of depression and anxiety 3 months later, controlling for pain-related anxiety and depressive symptoms, pain severity and interference at baseline. Having multiple pain conditions and sites may represent a psychosocial barrier to successful adjustment to chronic pain. PERSPECTIVE: This article argues for the importance of assessing the number of co-occurring chronic pain conditions and bodily areas that are affected by pain in both pain research and clinical settings. Measuring and incorporating such information could potentially enhance our nascent understanding of the adjustment processes of chronic pain.

Investigating intraindividual pain variability: methods, applications, issues, and directions.

Pain is a dynamic experience subject to substantial individual differences. Intensive longitudinal designs best capture the dynamical ebb and flow of the pain experience across time and settings. Thanks to the development of innovative and efficient data collection technologies, conducting an intensive longitudinal pain study has become increasingly feasible. However, the majority of longitudinal studies have tended to examine average level of pain as a predictor or as an outcome, while conceptualizing intraindividual pain variation as noise, error, or a nuisance factor. Such an approach may miss the opportunity to understand how fluctuations in pain over time are associated with pain processing, coping, other indices of adjustment, and treatment response. The present review introduces the 4 most frequently used intraindividual variability indices: the intraindividual SD/variance, autocorrelation, the mean square of successive difference, and probability of acute change. In addition, we discuss recent development in dynamic structural equation modeling in a nontechnical manner. We also consider some notable methodological issues, present a real-world example of intraindividual variability analysis, and offer suggestions for future research. Finally, we provide statistical software syntax for calculating the aforementioned intraindividual pain variability indices so that researchers can easily apply them in their research. We believe that investigating intraindividual variability of pain will provide a new perspective for understanding the complex mechanisms underlying pain coping and adjustment, as well as for enhancing efforts in precision pain medicine. Audio accompanying this abstract is available online as supplemental digital content at http://links.lww.com/PAIN/A817.

Personal resource profiles of individuals with chronic pain: Sociodemographic and pain interference differences.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE: Previous studies have demonstrated important associations between personal resources and pain interference. Using latent profile analysis, the present study (a) identified subgroups of individuals with chronic pain who have different personal resource profiles; (b) explored sociodemographic differences among subgroups; and (c) examined how these subgroups differ in pain interference. Research Method/Design: Study 1 is based on daily diary and survey data from 220 individuals with fibromyalgia (FM). Study 2 is based on 4 annual surveys of 483 individuals with long-term neurological/neuromuscular disease or injury, and chronic pain. Modifiable personal resource variables including sense of resilience, social support, pain acceptance, and sleep quality were included in latent profile analyses. RESULTS: Three subgroups were identified in both studies: High, Moderate, and Low Personal Resource groups. In both studies, annual income level was significantly different among subgroups. Study 1 results showed a significant between-groups difference in pain interference across 21-days only between High and Moderate Personal Resource groups controlling for the level of pain intensity and depressive symptoms. In Study 2, however, all subgroups were significantly different with respect to their levels of pain interference at baseline over and above various covariates, with the Low Personal Resource group reporting the highest level of pain interference at baseline. These baseline differences remained stable over 4 years. CONCLUSIONS/IMPLICATIONS: The findings suggest a robust association between economic disparity and personal resource profiles among individuals with chronic pain. The role of different personal resource profiles in pain interference appears to differ by chronic pain condition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Acute pain disrupts prospective memory cue detection processes.

Prospective memory refers to the planning, retention, retrieval, and execution of intentions for future behaviours and it is integral to the enterprise of daily living. Although prospective memory relies upon retrospective memory and executive processes often disrupted by pain, limited research has explored the influence of acute or chronic pain on the ability to complete prospective memory tasks. In the present study we investigated the influence of acute pain on prospective memory tasks that varied in their demands on executive processes (i.e., non-focal versus focal prospective memory cues). Complex-span working memory tasks were also administered to examine whether individual differences in working memory capacity moderated any negative impact of pain on prospective memory. Acute pain significantly impaired prospective memory performance in conditions that encouraged non-focal strategic processing of prospective memory cues, but not in conditions that encouraged more spontaneous focal processing. Individual differences in working memory capacity did not moderate the effect of acute pain on non-focal prospective memory. These findings provide new insights into prospective memory dysfunction created by painful experiences.

Does Working Memory Moderate the Within-Person Associations Between Pain Intensity and Negative Affect and Pain's Interference With Work Goal Pursuit?

OBJECTIVES: Chronic pain exerts a pervasive negative influence on workers' productivity. However, a paucity of research has addressed the mechanisms underlying the pain → productivity relation. In the present study using intensive daily diary data, we examined whether working memory (WM) moderates the positive within-person associations between (1) morning pain intensity and (2) morning negative affect (NA) and later day pain's interference of work-goal (WG) pursuit. METHODS: A community sample of 131 adults with chronic pain completed a battery of questionnaires, laboratory-measured WM, and a 21-day daily diary. RESULTS: WM did not moderate the positive within-person association between morning pain intensity and afternoon/evening ratings of pain's interference with work goal pursuit. However, individuals with higher WM showed significantly attenuated positive within-person association between morning negative affect and pain's interference with afternoon/evening work goal pursuit. DISCUSSION: WM appears to protect goal-relevant information from distractions due to negative affective arousal. The continued use of ecologically valid observational and intervention studies would shed further light on the influence of WM on the pursuit of valued work goals in the face of pain and negative affect.

Predictors and social consequences of daily pain expectancy among adults with chronic pain.

Previous research suggests that for people living with chronic pain, pain expectancy can undermine access to adaptive resources and functioning. We tested and replicated the unique effect of pain expectancy on subsequent pain through 2 daily diary studies. We also extended previous findings by examining cognitive and affective antecedents of pain expectancy and the consequences of pain expectancy for daily social enjoyment and stress. In study 1, 231 individuals with rheumatoid arthritis completed 30 end-of-day diaries. Results of multilevel structural equation model showed that controlling for today's pain, pain expectancy predicted next day pain. In study 2, diary assessments of affective, cognitive, and social factors were collected during the morning, afternoon, and evening for 21 days from a sample of 220 individuals with fibromyalgia. Results showed that both positive affect and the extent to which pain interfered with daily activities in the afternoon predicted evening pain expectancy in the expected direction. However, negative affect and pain coping efficacy were not associated with pain expectancy. Consistent with study 1, more than usual evening pain expectancy was related to greater next morning pain. We also found that next morning pain predicted next afternoon social enjoyment but not social stress. The findings of these 2 studies point to the importance of promoting positive affect and reducing pain expectancy as a way of decreasing the detrimental effect of chronic pain on enjoyable social experiences.

Affect, work-goal schemas, and work-goal striving among adults with chronic pain: a multilevel structural equation analysis.

For individuals with chronic pain, the within-person influence of affect and goal cognition on daily work-related goal striving is not yet well understood. The present study tested the hypothesis that anticipatory goal cognition in the form of a morning work goal schema mediates the relations between morning affect and later (afternoon and evening) work goal striving. Working adults with chronic pain (N = 131) completed a 21-day diary with morning, afternoon, and evening assessments analyzed via multi-level structural equation modeling. At the within-person level, morning positive and negative affect were positively associated with morning work goal schemas; and morning work goal schemas, in turn, positively predicted both afternoon and evening work goal striving. Our findings underscore the complex dynamics over time of the relationship between affect and self-regulatory processes and have implications for future studies and for interventions to assist working adults with chronic pain.

Pain-Contingent Interruption and Resumption of Work Goals: A Within-Day Diary Analysis.

UNLABELLED: Daily pain-related attributions for and negative affective reactions to the nonpursuit of work goals and individual differences in chronic pain severity and stress were used to predict work goal resumption in a sample of 131 adults with chronic pain. Variables were assessed via questionnaires and a 21-day diary. On days when participants reported nonpursuit of work goals in the afternoon, increases in pain-related attributions for goal interruption were positively associated with higher negative affective reactions which, in turn, were associated with an increased likelihood of same-day work goal resumption. Stress amplified the relation between pain-related attributions and negative affective reactions, and chronic pain severity was positively related to work goal resumption. PERSPECTIVE: Under certain circumstances, chronic pain and pain-related attributions can have positive motivational effects on work goal resumption. The findings of the present study may contribute to the development of interruption management techniques in vocational settings that leverage the roles of pain-related attributions, goal cognition, and emotionality.

Effects of daily pain intensity, positive affect, and individual differences in pain acceptance on work goal interference and progress.

Multilevel modeling was used to examine the effects of morning pain intensity and morning positive and negative affect on pain's interference with afternoon work goal pursuit and with evening work goal progress in a community sample of 132 adults who completed a 21-day diary. The moderating effects of pain acceptance and pain catastrophizing on the associations between morning pain intensity and afternoon work goal interference were also tested. Results revealed that the positive relationship between morning pain intensity and pain's interference with work goal pursuit was significantly moderated by pain acceptance, but not by pain catastrophizing. Both morning pain intensity and positive affect exerted significant indirect effects on evening work goal progress through the perception of pain's interference with work goal pursuit in the afternoon. Furthermore, the mediated effect of morning pain on evening work goal progress was significant when pain acceptance was at the grand mean and 1 SD below the grand mean, but not when pain acceptance was 1 SD above the grand mean. Thus, it appears that high pain acceptance significantly attenuates pain's capacity to disrupt work goal pursuit. Moreover, morning positive affect appears to operate as a protective factor. Additional interpretations and potential explanations for some inconsistent outcomes are discussed along with limitations, clinical implications, and suggestions for future studies.

Motivational predictors of psychometrically-defined schizotypy in a non-clinical sample: goal process representation, approach-avoid temperament, and aberrant salience.

Patterns of problematic volitional control in schizotypal personality disorder pertaining to goal process representation (GPR), approach and avoidance temperament, and aberrant salience have not been widely investigated in emerging adults. The present study aimed to provide preliminary evidence for the utility of examining these three motivational constructs as predictors of high versus low levels of psychometrically-defined schizotypy in a non-clinic sample. When college students with high levels of self-reported schizotypy (n = 88) were compared to those with low levels (n = 87) by means of logistic regression, aberrant salience, avoidant temperament, and the self-criticism component of GPR together accounted for 51% of the variance in schizotypy group assignment. Higher score on these three motivational dimensions reflected a proclivity toward higher levels of schizotypy. The current findings justify the continued exploration of goal-related constructs as useful motivational elements in psychopathology research.

Effects of pain intensity on goal schemas and goal pursuit: a daily diary study.

OBJECTIVE: Although the adverse effects of chronic pain on work productivity and daily life pursuits are clear, the within-person dynamics of pain, goal cognition, and engagement in work-related and lifestyle goals remain uncharted. This study investigated the impact of pain intensity (assessed on 3 occasions each day) and goal-related schematic thinking (ratings of importance, planning, and goal pursuit opportunities, assessed only in the morning) on afternoon and evening work and lifestyle goal pursuit. METHODS: A community sample of working adults with chronic pain (N = 131) were screened and interviewed about their work and lifestyle goals and completed a 21-day telephonic diary. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to estimate within-person and between-person effects. RESULTS: At the within-person level, morning pain intensity was inversely related to schematic cognition concerning work and lifestyle goals, whereas, at the between-person level, morning pain intensity varied positively with schematic thinking about work goals as well with afternoon lifestyle goal pursuit. At both the between- and within- analytic levels, morning goal schemas were positively associated with the pursuit of each type of goal in the afternoon and again in the evening. Moreover, positive carry-over effects of morning goal schemas on next day afternoon goal pursuit were observed. CONCLUSIONS: Whereas morning pain intensity exhibited inconsistent effects across analytic levels, morning goal-related schematic thinking consistently predicted goal pursuit across analytic levels, type of goal, and time of day. These findings have implications for treatment and prevention of pain's potentially deleterious effects on workplace and lifestyle goals.

Psychosocial and demographic correlates of employment vs disability status in a national community sample of adults with chronic pain: toward a psychology of pain presenteeism.

BACKGROUND: Although chronic pain is a source of work-related disability, relatively little research has addressed the psychological factors that differentiate individuals in chronic pain who leave the workforce from those who remain on the job despite their pain. OBJECTIVE: The present study examined a small set of attitudinal and coping-related factors as potential correlates of pain-related disability vs continued part- or full-time employment over and above the role of well-known risk factors. METHODS: A large sample of adult men and women with chronic pain drawn from across the United States (N = 1,293) by means of random digit dialing was subdivided into two groups: working (N = 859) and on disability (N = 434). Both groups were interviewed (by telephone) to complete a set of instruments (called the Profile of Chronic Pain: Extended Assessment battery) measuring pain attitudes and coping methods. RESULTS: Logistic regression analysis revealed that continued employment status was inversely related to pain severity and was positively related to higher education and being Hispanic. After controlling for severity and demographic factors, belief in a medical cure and catastrophizing tendencies were significant inverse predictors, and task persistence was a positive predictor of continued employment. CONCLUSIONS: Results revealed both demographic and attitudinal predictors of continued employment and highlight the value of harnessing insights from the psychology of work engagement to better understand the processes underlying pain presenteeism. Interventions designed to keep persons with pain in the active work force should build upon and extend the present findings.

Cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the profile of chronic pain: screen for a Brazilian population.

OBJECTIVE: To translate the original English version of the Profile of Chronic Pain: Screen (PCP:S) into Brazilian Portuguese and examine basic psychometric properties of the translated version. We investigated ceiling and floor effects, internal consistency, factor structure, convergent validity, and the ability of the Brazilian PCP:S (B-PCP:S) to discriminate persons with pain who were either employed or not working, or in treatment or not in treatment. METHODS: The Brazilian Portuguese version of the Profile of Chronic Pain: Screen (B-PCP:S) was administered to a sample of 414 adults (men = 67). Pain catastrophizing was also assessed. Subsamples with special conditions (working despite pain [N = 116] vs not working due to pain [N = 122], and not receiving treatment for pain [N = 119] vs receiving treatment [N = 119]) were identified to investigate the discriminative properties of B-PCP:S. RESULTS: For the B-PCP:S, Cronbach's α values were 0.76 (severity), 0.88 (interference), and 0.87 (emotional burden). Confirmatory factor analysis supported the original, English language three-factor structure, with the comparative fit index = 0.93, root mean square error of approximation = 0.075, and normed fit index = 0.93. Significant correlations were found between pain intensity, pain interference, and emotional burden, and a criterion measure of catastrophizing (correlation coefficients ranged from 0.48 to 0.66, P < 0.01). B-PCP:S scores (severity, interference, and emotional burden) were higher in subjects under a doctor's care for pain and in those not working due to pain. CONCLUSION: This B-PCP:S version was found to be a reliable instrument, with basic evidence of validity for the evaluation of pain severity, interference, and emotional burden in Brazilian Portuguese adults. The profile of B-PCP:S scores was similar to that observed in the original version.