Differential fear of cardiopulmonary sensations in emergency room noncardiac chest pain patients

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.