ATTENTIONAL CONTROL OF PAIN PERCEPTION - THE ROLE OF HYPOCHONDRIASIS

The role of hypochondriasis in the attentional control of pain percept ion was investigated in 28 in-patients (12 women and 16 men) at a hosp ital for psychosomatic disorders, who had been classified into high-an d low-hypochondriacal categories by means of the Illness Attitude Scal es (IAS). The two groups did not differ in their basic pain sensitivit y based on their heat pain thresholds. Attentional control was manipul ated by a mental arithmetic task, resulting in one experimental condit ion with distraction and one without distraction, In both of the condi tions, subjects rated the intensity and the unpleasantness of nonpainf ul and painful heat stimuli on visual analog scales (VAS). Distraction significantly reduced the perceived intensity and unpleasantness of t he stimuli at painful levels but not at nonpainful levels. Contrary to our expectation, the individual level of hypochondriasis did not infl uence this result. Although distraction seemed to have a strong influe nce on pain perception, hypochondriasis as a symptom or a trait did no t contribute to this effect. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Inc.