Je. Aikens et al., Differential fear of cardiopulmonary sensations in emergency room noncardiac chest pain patients, J BEHAV MED, 24(2), 2001, pp. 155-167
Fear of bodily sensations has received extensive attention in relation to p
anic disorder and more recently, other types of anxiety pathology and chron
ic pain problems. Extending this work, the present study examined fear of b
odily sensations and its underlying dimensions in emergency room patients w
ith Noncardiac Chest Pain (NCCP; n = 63). We posited a "differential specif
icity" hypothesis, expecting that specific cardiopulmonary fears would be m
ore strongly associated with NCCP symptoms relative to other bodily fears.
As hypothesized, participants reported cardiopulmonary sensations as signif
icantly more fear-provoking than numbness, dissociation, and gastrointestin
al sensations. Additionally, regression analysis indicated that after accou
nting for theoretically relevant demographic variables and health status, c
ardiopulmonary fear was the best predictor of a composite index of cardiac
complaints intensity, even after removing variance related to the absolute
number of cardiac complaints. We discuss these findings in relation to the
specific role for the fear of cardiopulmonary sensations in chest pain comp
laints, with implications for better understanding the underlying psycholog
ical processes involved in NCCP.