Fear in the context of pain: Lessons learned from 100 years of fear conditioning research.

We describe the different pain-related fear conditioning paradigms using proprioceptive and interoceptive CSs and painful stimuli as USs that have been developed to study specific forms of pain-related fear (i.e. fear of movement, fear of touch, fear of visceral sensations, and fear of penetration) that are relevant for different chronic pain conditions (i.e. musculoskeletal pain, neuropathic pain, visceral pain, and genital pain). We present evidence that patients with chronic pain demonstrate impaired safety learning and excessive fear generalization; learning anomalies that have also been observed in anxiety disorders. Extinction-based protocols (exposure in vivo) have been developed to reduce pain-related fear and increase daily functioning in various chronic pain disorders. Finally, we outline some challenges and future directions to further our understanding of learning mechanisms underlying the development, persistence, and treatment of chronic pain disability. PMID: 32417719 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Behaviour Research and Therapy - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Behav Res Ther Source Type: research