The Influence of State and Trait Anxiety on the Memory of Pain.
OBJECTIVE
The study aimed to assess the accuracy of memories of both pain and the state anxiety that accompanies experimentally induced pain and to investigate the factors that influence the memory of experimental pain.


METHODS
Forty-nine healthy female volunteers participated in the study. The participants received three electrocutaneous pain stimuli during the first phase of the study and rated the pain intensity, pain unpleasantness, and state anxiety they felt at that moment. Trait pain anxiety was measured by the Pain Anxiety Symptoms Scale and the Fear of Pain Questionnaire. During the second phase of the study, three or six months later (depending on the experimental group), the participants were asked to rate the pain intensity, pain unpleasantness, and state anxiety they had felt during the first phase of the study.


RESULTS
Recalled pain intensity and unpleasantness and the state anxiety that accompanied the pain experience were remembered accurately, regardless of the recall delay. Both recalled pain intensity and unpleasantness were predicted by experienced pain, experienced and recalled state anxiety, and trait pain anxiety, that is, scores for physiological anxiety, cognitive anxiety, escape/avoidance, and severe pain.


CONCLUSIONS
The present study demonstrates that a specific type of trait anxiety (pain anxiety) influences the memory of pain. The study is not only the first to investigate the influence of trait anxiety on the memory of experimental pain, it also is the first study to determine the effect of a specific form of anxiety (pain anxiety) on the memory of experimentally induced pain.
Institute of Psychology, Pain Research Group, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland.
Przemyslaw
P
Babel
D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D011939:Mental Recall; D010146:Pain / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult
Memory; Pain Intensity; Pain Unpleasantness; State Anxiety; Trait Anxiety