Effects of Prolactin on Cloned Human T-Lymphocytes

Journal of Pain Research

The present study aimed to assess the influence of personality traits on the variability of sensitivity to pain in two distinct groups of healthy subjects with low versus high sensitivity to pain (LSP vs HSP, respectively). Methods: Healthy subjects (n=156) were allocated to two groups according to their tolerability to cold stimulation (cold pressor test, CPT, 1°C). Group LSP (n=76) reached the cutoff time of 180±0 sec, and a size matched group of HSP (n=80) tolerated the CPT for an average of 10.5±3.4 sec only. Subjects from both groups completed the self-reported pain sensitivity questionnaire (PSQ), the Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS), and the Neuroticism Extraversion Openness-Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI). Results: In comparison to the LSP group, HSP individuals had higher scores of PSQ (p<0.001), catastrophizing (p=0.001), and extraversion (p=0.01). By adjusting for age and gender, mediation analyses revealed that catastrophizing mediated the relationship between neuroticism and pain sensitivity, both in the allocation of subjects to a certain group of sensitivity to pain (LSP or HSP, B=0.02 95% CI: 0.006-0.040) and in the PSQ score (B=0.01 95% CI: 0.001-0.023). Conclusion: These results, which were demonstrated by two different prisms (CPT and PSQ), point to the potential of the five-factor inventory and pain catastrophizing scale as tools for identifying specific personality traits associated with a high sensitivity to pain.

Personality and Individual Differences, 1991

sought to evaluate the relationship of personality to volunteer status in college women asked to participate in a pain research study. Female college students completed a questionnaire that included measures of extraversion (EXT), neuroticism (NEUR), lying (LIE), psychoticism (PSYCH), external locus of control (EX LOC) and trait anxiety (TR ANX) in a classroom setting. Following completion of the questionnaire, each student was asked whether she would participate in a study of pain tolerance. The Personality scores of women who volunteered and kept their appointment (n = 61) for the study were compared to those women who declined to participate (n = 31). Females who volunteered to participate generally scored higher on the EX LOC measure than those who declined to participate (r = 0.33, P < 0.01). Volunteer status was not significantly related to EXT (I = 0.15), NEUR (r =-0.17) LIE (r =-0.18). PSYCH (r = 0.03) or TR ANX (r =-0.05). Thus, certain personality measures, such as EX LOC, may be related to the willingness of the women to volunteer for pain research. Therefore, studies examining the relationship of personality to pain experience, such as pain tolerance, must be interpreted cautiously.

Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 2004

This study analyzes the relationships between neuroticism, extroversion, age, and sex and the intensity of perceived pain and the coping strategies used. We worked with a sample of 96 patients with chronic pain. The assessment tools were the following: the Vanderbilt Pain Management Inventory, a Spanish version of the McGill Pain Questionnaire, and the Eysenck Personality Inventory. The hypothetical model establishes positive relationships between neuroticism, the use of passive coping strategies, and the intensity of pain. On the other hand, extraversion is expected to be positively related to the use of active coping strategies and negatively related to the perceived intensity of pain. The results support the hypotheses formulated regarding the effects of the variables neuroticism and extraversion. Age is negatively related to active coping strategies and pain intensity. Men use more active strategies than women, while the latter have a greater perception of pain.

Pain, 2004

The present study investigated the effects of two attributes of the experimenter (gender and professional status) on the report and tolerance of pain in male and female subjects. 160 non-psychology students (80 male and 80 female, aged 17-59 years) participated in a cold-pressor task. Subjects were assigned to one of 8 groups: male (M) and female (F) experimenters tested male (m) and female (f) students. In each combination (Mm, Mf, Fm, Ff), the cold-pressor task was conducted by either one of two faculty members (high professional) or one of two students (low professional). Subjects were asked to immerse their non-dominant hand as long as possible in cold water (K1 8C). Dependent variables were pain threshold, pain tolerance, and pain intensity. Results indicated a significant main effect for professional status of the experimenter on pain tolerance. Subjects tolerated pain longer when they were tested by a professional experimenter. Further, a significant interaction of experimenter gender and subject gender on pain tolerance indicated that subjects also tolerated pain longer when they were tested by an experimenter of the opposite sex. Additionally, a significant main effect for experimenter gender showed higher pain intensities for subjects tested by female experimenters. The observation that pain responsivity is influenced by the professional status of the experimenter might have implications for the study of pain in general and should be addressed in more detail in future experiments. q

Pain practice : the official journal of World Institute of Pain, 2014

Whether psychological factors such as anxiety and pain catastrophizing levels influence the expression of endogenous analgesia in general and, more specifically, the conditioned pain modulation (CPM) response is still under debate. It may be assumed that other psychological characteristics also play a role in the CPM response. The neurotransmitters serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine are involved both in CPM, as well as personality traits such as harm avoidance (HA), novelty seeking (NS), and reward dependence (RD), which can be obtained by the Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire (TPQ). However, the associations between these traits (HA, NS, and RD) with endogenous analgesia revealed by CPM have not yet been explored. Healthy middle-age subjects (n = 28) completed the TPQ, Spielberger&#39;s State Anxiety Inventory, and the Pain Catastrophizing Scale and were assessed for CPM paradigms using thermal phasic temporal summation as the &quot;test stimulus&quot; and hand immersio...

Pain Medicine, 2006

Study Design. This is a structured evidence-based review of all available studies on the effect of pain, (a state phenomenon) on the measurement of personality characteristics (a trait phenomenon). Objectives. To determine whether pain treatment changes trait scores. Summary of Background Data. Recent evidence from the psychiatric literature indicates that the measurement of personality characteristics (traits) can be affected or changed by the presences of state psychiatric disorders, for example, depression. At issue then is whether the measurement of chronic pain patients' (CPPs') trait characteristics is affected by the presence of pain, a state problem. Methods. Computer and manual literature searches for pain studies that reported a prepain treatment and postpain treatment (test-retest) personality test or inventory score produced 35 such reports. These references were reviewed in detail and information relating to the above problem was abstracted and placed into tabular form. Each report was also categorized as to the type of study it represented according to the guidelines developed by the Agency of Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR). In addition, a list of 15 quality criteria was utilized to measure the quality of each study. Each study was independently categorized for each criterion as positive (criterion filled), negative (criterion not filled), or not applicable, by two of the authors. Only studies having a quality score of 65% or greater were utilized to formulate the conclusions of this review. The strength and consistency of the evidence represented by the remaining studies were then categorized according to the AHCPR guidelines. Conclusions of this review were based on these results. Results. Of the 35 reports, 32 had quality scores of 65% or greater. According to the AHCPR guidelines, there was a consistent finding that the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) scores changed (improved) with treatment. In reference to the Millon Behavioral Health Inventory, Locus of Control, the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R), trait anxiety, and personality disorders, there were not enough studies to draw conclusions about consistency. In reference to coping/self-efficacy inventories, somatization/illness behavior inventories, and personality questionnaire studies, there was a generally consistent finding that these tests changed (improved) with pain treatment. Overall, of the 32 reports, 92.3% demonstrated a change in trait scores (improvement) with pain treatment. This evidence was categorized as consistent. Finally, 100% of a subgroup of reports (N = 12) that had controlled for pain indicated that there was a relationship between a change in pain scores and a change in trait scores. Conclusions. Based on the above results, it was concluded that some trait tests and inventories may not be pain state independent. Therefore, caution is warranted in interpreting postpain development personality profiles as being indicative of the true prepain personality structure, if measured

European Journal of Pain, 2004

The aim of the present study was to examine the possible role of personality traits in determining the variability of pain perception among individuals. More specifically, it was intended to test whether or not the three personality dimensions suggested by Cloninger in 1987-mainly harm avoidance (HA), but also reward dependence (RD), and novelty seeking (NS), can predict interpersonal differences in responsiveness to experimental pain. Seventy healthy volunteers participated in the study. Their personality traits were evaluated through CloningerÕs tridimensional personality questionnaire (TPQ). Pain threshold (latency to pain onset), pain magnitude (VAS), and pain tolerance (time to withdrawal) were measured by using the cold pressor test. Bonferroniadjusted correlations were found between HA and the pain parameters as follows: a negative correlation between HA and threshold (q ¼ À0:297, P adj ¼ 0:039); no significant correlation between HA and tolerance (q ¼ À0:219, P adj ¼ 0:207); and a trend for a positive correlation between HA and VAS (q ¼ 0:266, P adj ¼ 0:081). Possible correlations between pain perception and the various possible combinations of high and low scoring for each of the three traits were also investigated. Correlations were found only for the combinations of high/low HA and high/low RD. The low HA/low RD combination demonstrated the lowest responsiveness to pain (VAS 65.2 AE 21.4; tolerance 107.6 AE 71.8 s), whereas the high HA/low RD combination was correlated with the highest responsiveness (VAS 83.3 AE 10.8; tolerance 30.8 AE 28.4 s). The results indicate that HA personality trait correlates best with pain responsiveness. As such, a high HA are likely to predict a heightened pain response. RD may modify this pattern. The possible relevant behavioral and neuro-chemical mechanisms are discussed.

Reviews in Analgesia, 2008

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2010

Pain is a debilitating condition affecting millions each year, yet what predisposes certain individuals to be more sensitive to pain remains relatively unknown. Several psychological factors have been associated with pain perception, but the structural relations between multiple higher-and lower-order constructs and pain are not well understood. Thus, we aimed to examine the associations between pain perception using the cold pressor task (CPT), higher-order personality traits (neuroticism, negative affectivity, trait anxiety, extraversion, positive affectivity, psychoticism), and lower-order pain-related psychological constructs (pain catastrophizing [pre-and post], fear of pain, anxiety sensitivity, somatosensory amplification, hypochondriasis) in 66 pain-free adults. Factor analysis revealed three latent psychological variables: pain-or body-sensitivity, negative affect/neuroticism, and positive affect/extraversion. Similarly, pain responses factored into three domains: intensity, quality, and tolerance. Regression and correlation analyses demonstrated 1) all the lower-order pain constructs (fear, catastrophizing, and hypochondriasis) are related through a single underlying latent factor, that is partially related to the higher-order negative-valence personality traits; 2) pain-or bodysensitivity was more strongly predictive of pain quality than higher-order traits; and 3) the form of pain assessment is important -only qualitative pain ratings were significantly predicted by the psychological factors.

Synthese, 2019

The smooth integration of the natural sciences with everyday lived experience is an important ambition of radical embodied cognitive science. In this paper we start from Koffka's recommendation in his Principles of Gestalt Psychology that to realize this ambition psychology should be a "science of molar behaviour". Molar behavior refers to the purposeful behaviour of the whole organism directed at an environment that is meaningfully structured for the animal. Koffka made a sharp distinction between the "behavioural environment" and the "geographical environment". We show how this distinction picks out the difference between the environment as perceived by an individual organism, and the shared publicly available environment. The ecological psychologist James Gibson was later critical of Koffka for inserting a private phenomenal reality in between animals and the shared environment. Gibson tried to make do Our thanks to 123 Synthese with just the concept of affordances in his explanation of molar behaviour. We argue however that psychology as a science of molar behaviour will need to make appeal both to the concepts of shared publicly available affordances, and of the multiplicity of relevant affordances that invite an individual to act. A version of Koffka's distinction between the two environments remains alive today in a distinction we have made between the field and landscape of affordances. Having distinguished the two environments , we go on to provide an account of how the two environments are related. Koffka suggested that the behavioural environment forms out of the causal interaction of the individual with a pre-existing, ready-made geographical environment. We argue that such an account of the relation between the two environments fails to do justice to the complex entanglement of the social with the material aspects of the geographical environment. To better account for this sociomaterial reality of the geographical environment, we propose a process-perspective on our distinction between the landscape and field of affordances. While the two environments can be conceptually distinguished, we argue they should also be viewed as standing in a relation of reciprocal and mutual dependence.