Attachment Style and Chronic Pain: Toward an Interpersonal Model of Pain

Romeo, Annunziata; Tesio, Valentina; Castelnuovo, Gianluca; Castelli, Lorys

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00284

Cited by 26 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…In other words, our results seem to indicate that adult attachment patterns have more visible connections with symptoms directly related to the psychological sphere, compared to symptoms that have less direct psychological underpinnings (pain), at least in non-clinical samples (like both of our samples in Study 1 and 2). Most of the previous studies that indicate a positive relationship between insecure attachment dimensions and pain severity were based on clinical populations, patients experiencing chronic pain, with a high level of pain complaints or members of other clinical groups, like cancer patients (Kolb 1982;Meredith et al 2008;Mikail et al 1994;Romeo et al 2017). Our results indicated that in the general population, this relation may not be as reliablefuture studies should conduct further tests for the described pattern.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 66%

Adult attachment and health symptoms: The mediating role of emotion regulation difficulties

et al. 2018

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Previous research suggests that insecurely attached individuals may, in some cases, have a higher risk of developing negative health symptoms than securely attached ones. We conducted two studies (Study 1, n = 191; Study 2, n = 216) aimed at broadening this finding. We analysed the relationships between two distinct dimensions of insecure attachment (anxious and avoidant) and several classes of negative physical and mental health symptoms. Additionally, we placed emotion regulation difficulties in the role of potential mediator of these relationships. Our results indicated that both anxious and avoidant attachment were positively related to health symptoms on the level of bivariate correlations. However, when both of them were controlled within one mediation model, it was only attachment anxiety, and not attachment avoidance, that proved to be a significant, positive predictor of most health symptom classes: vegetative, agoraphobic, social phobia symptoms and global symptom severity index (which reflects a broad range of negative health symptoms). These relationships were indeed mediated by emotion regulation difficulties. Our results support the notion that (1) different dimensions of insecure attachment can have differential consequences for physical and mental health, and (2) emotion regulation can be one of the mechanisms that explain the links between attachment and health.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 66%

Adult attachment and health symptoms: The mediating role of emotion regulation difficulties

et al. 2018

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“…Similarly, Gil et al [31] reported positive associations between ambivalent attachment styles, parental bonding, and alexithymia among patients with somatoform disorders. Particularly, with regard to chronic pain patients, many studies have investigated the relationship between attachment style and chronic pain [32][33][34] as well as parental bonding and chronic pain [35]. The findings suggest that insecure attachment and inadequate parental care are significantly associated with chronic pain.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Attachment style and parental bonding: Relationships with fibromyalgia and alexithymia

et al. 2020

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Objectives Fibromyalgia (FM) is a chronic pain syndrome, and alexithymia, which is a condition that is characterised by deficits in emotional self-awareness, is highly prevalent among individuals with FM. Insecure attachment styles and inadequate parental care appear to play an important role in the onset and maintenance of both alexithymia and chronic pain. Therefore, the present study aimed to examine the associations between attachment styles, parental bonding, and alexithymia among patients with FM and healthy controls (HC). Methods All participants completed a battery of tests that assessed alexithymia, attachment styles, and parental bonding. Two logistic regression models were tested to examine whether these variables predict (a) group membership (i.e. patients with FM vs. HC) and (b) the likelihood of having alexithymia (i.e. among patients with FM and HC). Results Alexithymia (i.e. difficulty identifying and describing feelings subscales of the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale) significantly predicted group membership (i.e. the likelihood of having FM). On the other hand, educational level and dismissive attachment (i.e. the discomfort with closeness and relationships as secondary subscales of the Attachment Style Questionnaire) were the only significant predictors of the likelihood of having alexithymia. Conclusions These findings highlight both the relevance of alexithymic traits to the definition of FM and centrality of an insecure attachment style to the manifestation of alexithymia.

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“…The implications are that early stress experiences are likely to compromise an individual's ability to manage the emotional and cognitive aspects associated with pain, resulting in elevated experiences of pain. Pain recognised as a subjective and physical experience differs among individuals (Lee-Chiong et al, 2010), and in the current study was associated with several factors including interpersonal and intrapersonal experiences, consistent with suggested models of pain development and management (cf., Romeo, Tesio, Castelnuovo, & Castelli, 2017). The intensity of the pain experienced in the current study of individuals suffering scleroderma was linked to early childhood experiences associated with feelings of insecurity and limited resources to manage emotions with self and others.…”

Section: Implications Of the Findingsmentioning

confidence: 86%

Pain in relation to emotion regulatory resources and self-compassion: a non-randomized correlational study involving recollected early childhood experiences and insecure attachment

Hicks¹,

Kearney²

2019

Health Psychology Report

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health psychology report • volume 7(1), 9 original article background Pain is common in most diseases and is usually treated by medical and physical approaches (medications, exercise). Limited attention has been given to whether non-medical approaches (such as emotion regulation abilities including self-compassion) can help further reduce the pain experienced. Scleroderma (systemic sclerosis), a painful and complex autoimmune connective tissue and vascular disease, was examined in this study in relation to psychological aspects of pain and the links of pain to (1) early life experiences, (2) current insecure attachment style, (3) physiological arousal (negative, hyper-arousal), and (4) personal emotion regulation (self-compassion). Knowledge about these relationships may help in the treatment of pain. participants and procedure Participants (120) from Australia (39) and the United Kingdom (81) completed an online or a hard copy survey; 78 participants remained for analysis after screening. results We found that poor or limited positive early life experiences and a current insecure (dismissive) attachment style contributed significantly to experiencing elevated levels of pain. We also found that negative early life experiences and limited emotion regulation (low self-compassion) predicted hyper-arousal, which in turn was associated with experienced pain. Insecure dismissive attachment style and hyper-arousal were significantly correlated. conclusions These findings suggest that negative childhood experiences and an insecure dismissive attachment style may determine how emotional experiences are regulated or managed by individuals in disease-related pain. Implications include that interventions addressing attachment style and selfcompassion may help reduce pain in the individuals concerned, thus helping supplement the effectiveness of current medication and physical approaches.

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Attachment Style and Chronic Pain: Toward an Interpersonal Model of Pain

Cited by 26 publications

References 32 publications

Adult attachment and health symptoms: The mediating role of emotion regulation difficulties

Adult attachment and health symptoms: The mediating role of emotion regulation difficulties

Attachment style and parental bonding: Relationships with fibromyalgia and alexithymia

Pain in relation to emotion regulatory resources and self-compassion: a non-randomized correlational study involving recollected early childhood experiences and insecure attachment

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