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Empirical methods are used to explore the relationship between chronic pain, somatic awareness and attention. Using a primary task paradigm, 46 chronic pain patients performed an attentionally demanding task. Patients were classified according to self reported pain intensity and the extent of their reporting of the perception of bodily sensations (somatic awareness). Results showed that, as predicted, disruption of attentional performance was most pronounced in those who reported high pain intensity and high somatic awareness. Further analysis revealed that these patients also reported high negative affect. These findings are discussed in terms of their theoretical implications for the concept of hypervigilance and their clinical implications for chronic pain control.

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Patients with chronic pain often report negative and aversive rumination about pain and its consequences. Little is known about how and why patients with chronic pain worry. This study provides a description of worrying by chronic pain patients. Eighteen female and 16 male chronic pain patients reported, over a 7-day period, their experience of pain-related and non-pain-related worry. Results indicated that, in comparison with non-pain related worry, worry about chronic pain is experienced as more difficult to dismiss, more distracting, more attention grabbing, more intrusive, more distressing and less pleasant. Further analyses suggest that these characteristics of worry about chronic pain do not arise from a general disposition to worry or from a general disposition to anxiety. Worry is, however, related to awareness of somatic sensations. These results are discussed within an attentional model in which worry functions to maintain vigilance to threat.