Extinction of Fear Generalization: A Comparison Between Fibromyalgia Patients and Healthy Control Participants

Autor: Iris Stouten, Ann Meulders, Johan W.S. Vlaeyen, Michel Meulders, Jozef De Bie
Přispěvatelé: Section Experimental Health Psychology, RS: FPN CPS I
Rok vydání: 2016
Předmět:
Male
Reflex
Startle

Fibromyalgia
Conditioning
Classical

Audiology
Generalization
Psychological

Developmental psychology
Extinction
Psychological

0302 clinical medicine
Medicine
Fear conditioning
fear generalization
Expectancy theory
learning
Chronic pain
Fear
Middle Aged
voluntary movement paradigm
Neurology
Female
Adult
medicine.medical_specialty
Pain-related fear
QUESTIONNAIRE
HOSPITAL ANXIETY
CONDITIONED FEAR
03 medical and health sciences
Young Adult
MOVEMENT-RELATED PAIN
Generalization (learning)
Humans
EFFECT SIZE
030203 arthritis & rheumatology
business.industry
ACQUISITION
Panic disorder
Classical conditioning
Extinction (psychology)
medicine.disease
fear conditioning
PANIC DISORDER
fear extinction
DEPRESSION SCALE
Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine
Case-Control Studies
Neurology (clinical)
business
030217 neurology & neurosurgery
POTENTIATED STARTLE
Zdroj: The Journal of Pain, 18(1), 79-95. Churchill Livingstone
ISSN: 1528-8447
1526-5900
Popis: Fear learning deficiencies might contribute to the development and maintenance of chronic pain disability. Fear is often not restricted to movements (conditioned stimulus [CS+]) originally associated with pain (unconditioned stimulus), but expands to similar movements (generalization stimuli [GSs]). This spreading of fear becomes dysfunctional when overgeneralization to safe stimuli occurs. More importantly, persistence of pain-related fear to GSs despite corrective feedback might even be more debilitating and maintain long-term chronic pain disability. Yet, research on this topic is lacking. Using a voluntary joystick movement paradigm, we examined (extinction of) pain-related fear generalization in fibromyalgia patients (FM) and healthy control participants (HC). During acquisition, one movement (CS+) predicted pain; another did not (CS−). We tested (extinction of) fear generalization to 5 GSs varying in similarity with the CS+ and CS−. Results revealed flatter pain expectancy generalization gradients in FM than in HC due to elevated responses to GSs more similar to the CS−; the fear generalization gradients did not differ. Although pain-related fear and expectancy to the GSs decreased during extinction, responses to the GSs remained higher for FM than HC, suggesting that extinction of generalization is impaired in chronic pain patients. Persistence of excessive protective responses may contribute to maintaining long-term chronic pain disability. Perspective Pain-related fear and expectancy to movements—varying in similarity with the original painful and nonpainful movement—decrease during extinction in HC and FM. Yet, conditioned responses remain elevated in patients despite corrective feedback, indicating impaired extinction of generalization. Persistent excessive protective responses may contribute to preserving pain disability.
Databáze: OpenAIRE