Me. Geisser et al., THE RELATIONSHIP OF DEPRESSION AND SOMATIC FOCUS TO EXPERIMENTAL AND CLINICAL PAIN IN CHRONIC PAIN PATIENTS, Psychology & health, 8(6), 1993, pp. 405-415
The present study examined Fields' proposal that depression increases
the sensory experience of pain in part through greater somatic focus.
Experimental and clinical pain measures were compared to self-report o
f depression and somatic focus in 60 chronic pain patients. Depression
scores were unrelated to pain threshold or tolerance on the cold-pres
sor test. However, as hypothesized by Fields, path analytic models sug
gested that depression had a direct influence on the evaluative and af
fective aspects of pain, but the relationship between depression and s
ensory pain was mediated by somatic focus. These results provide parti
al support for Fields' neurobiological model of pain and depression.