title: Lower Resting State Heart Rate Variability Relates to High Pain Catastrophizing in Patients with Chronic Whiplash-Associated Disorders and Healthy Controls.
abstract: Vagally mediated heart rate variability (vmHRV) is widely respected as a psychophysiological measure of emotion regulation capacity and serves as a readily available index of executive brain areas that exert an inhibitory influence on subcortical structures. Pain catastrophizing (PC) is conceptualized as the tendency to misinterpret and exaggerate pain-related situations that may be threatening. Chronic pain patients show lower vmHRV and higher PC. Previously, no study has investigated the association of PC and vmHRV. We examined the association of PC and vmHRV in a sample of patients with chronic whiplash-associated disorders (WAD, n = 30) and healthy controls (n = 31). Patients with WAD showed lower vmHRV, indexed by high-frequency HRV (effect size, Cohen's d = 0.442), and greater PC (d = 0.815). Zero-order and partial correlations controlling for age and sex revealed that vmHRV and PC are inversely related. The results provide evidence for a psychophysiological mechanism underlying PC, in particular in chronic pain patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, U.S.A.
authors.forename: Julian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Koenig
authors.affiliation: Pain in Motion Research Group, Departments of Human Physiology and Physiotherapy, Faculty of Physical Education and Physiotherapy, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Brussel, Belgium.|Born Bunge Institute, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Antwerp (UA), Antwerp, Belgium.
authors.forename: Margot
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: De Kooning
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, U.S.A.
authors.forename: Anthony
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bernardi
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, U.S.A.
authors.forename: DeWayne P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.affiliation: Pain in Motion Research Group, Departments of Human Physiology and Physiotherapy, Faculty of Physical Education and Physiotherapy, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Brussel, Belgium.
authors.forename: Jo
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Nijs
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, U.S.A.
authors.forename: Julian F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Thayer
authors.affiliation: Pain in Motion Research Group, Departments of Human Physiology and Physiotherapy, Faculty of Physical Education and Physiotherapy, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Brussel, Belgium.
authors.forename: Liesbeth
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Daenen
keywords: chronic whiplash; heart rate variability; inhibitory control; pain catastrophizing; threat perception; vagal activity