The relationship between anxiety sensitivity and fear of pain in healthy adolescents

The present study investigated the relationship between anxiety sensitivity and fear of pain in a large group of healthy adolescents (N=200). Particip ants completed the childhood anxiety sensitivity index for children-revised , a questionnaire measuring four specific domains of anxiety sensitivity: f ear of cardiovascular symptoms, fear of respiratory symptoms, fear of cogni tive dyscontrol, and fear of publicly observable anxiety symptoms, and a si mplified version of the pain anxiety symptoms scale, a self-report instrume nt assessing pain-related anxiety and avoidance (i.e. fear of pain). In lin e with previous research in adult populations, it was found that anxiety se nsitivity is substantially and positively related to fear of pain. Even whe n controlling for other potential predictors of fear of pain (i.e. pain sym ptoms, other somatization symptoms, trait anxiety, and panic disorder sympt oms), anxiety sensitivity appeared to declare a unique proportion of the va riance in pain anxiety symptoms. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.