Observation of a paradoxical temperature increase during cognitive stress in some chronic pain patients.
A total of 224 chronic pain somatoform disorder patients without obvious pathophysiology or psychopathology were found to have colder hands than nonpatients. A paradoxical temperature increase (PTI) in response to a cognitive stressor (mental arithmetic) was noted in a subset of these chronic pain patients. Patients were defined as "PTI" responders if, during cognitive stress, an increase in digital temperature occurred over a prior eyes closed resting condition. It was found that 49.4% of males and 42.6% of females in a total sample of 224 patients demonstrated PTI. The PTI patients had significantly colder hands than non-PTI patients prior to stress. A concurrent SCL measure of sympathetic activation found no difference between the PTI and non-PTI groups either at baseline or during cognitive stress. It appears from this data that PTI is specific to the peripheral vascular system of these patients and may be a marker of psychophysiological dissociation or trauma blocked from consciousness.
Wickramasekera
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Saybrook Institute and Stanford Medical School, California, USA.
Kolm
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P
Pope
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A
Turner
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D000328:Adult; D001831:Body Temperature / Q000502:physiology*; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010146:Pain / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology