Parkes C, Bezzina O, Chapman A, Luteran A, Freeston MH, Robinson LJ. Jumping to conclusions in persistent pain using a somatosensory modification of the beads task.
J Psychosom Res 2019;
126:109819. [PMID:
31491534 DOI:
10.1016/j.jpsychores.2019.109819]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/14/2019] [Revised: 08/27/2019] [Accepted: 08/28/2019] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND
There is theoretical and empirical evidence that persistent pain occurs because of a distortion in top-down perceptual processes. 'Jumping to conclusions' (JTC) tasks, such as the beads task, purportedly capture these processes and have yet to be studied in people with chronic pain. However, the beads task uses visual stimuli, whereas tasks involving processing in the somatosensory domain seem at least more face valid in this population. This study uses a novel somatosensory adaptation of the beads task to explore whether a JTC reasoning style is more common in people with persistent pain compared controls.
METHODS
30 persistent pain patients and 30 age-, gender- and education-matched controls completed the visual beads JTC task and a novel somatosensory version of the JTC task that used tactile stimuli (vibrations to the fingertip).
FINDINGS
Patients with persistent pain showed a 'jumping to conclusions' reasoning style on both tasks compared to the control group and there was no significant difference in the effect sizes on the two tasks.
INTERPRETATION
This preliminarily study demonstrated that individuals with persistent pain show a JTC reasoning style to both visual and somatosensory stimuli. Future research should focus on establishing how or whether this bias directly influences the experience of persistent pain.
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