Attention bias and sensitization in chemical sensitivity

Chemosensory attention, habituation and detection in women and men

“…If women in general would show similar reactions to odors as persons with CI, such a finding would be important in understanding why they are overrepresented in this affliction. Andersson et al (2009), in a study design similar to the present study, showed that persons with CI had lower chemosomatosensory detection thresholds than nonsensitive persons. They also had shorter latencies in the main positive peak of chemosomatosensory and olfactory ERPs when prompted to ignore stimuli, and did not habituate to CO 2 to the same degree as shown by magnitude estimations over time.…”

“…Participants alternated between attend and an ignore tasks during different test blocks, similar to methods used in previous studies (Andersson et al, 2009;Geisler and Murphy, 2000). In both tasks, participants were told to breathe through their mouth to avoid exhaling the chemical stimuli, to keep their eyes open and fixate within a small area on a computer screen.…”

The association between idiopathic environmental intolerance and psychological distress, and the influence of social support and recent major life events

“…Since it is likely that the aetiology is multi-factorial, and as in functional disorders [38], it can be argued that the complexities of IEI should be studied from a bio-psycho-social perspective. Such an approach would involve considering (1) the influence of biological factors, such as central sensitization processes, which have been suggested as a mechanism involved in the acquisition and maintenance of IEI [39][40][41], (2) changes in the reactivity of the hypothalamic-pituitaryadrenal axis [42] and/or psychopathological processes, such as the role of anxiety and depression [17], (3) processes involved in symptom perception and amplification and in emotional regulation [43,44] and (4) socioeconomic factors [7].…”

Attention to bodily sensations and symptom perception in individuals with idiopathic environmental intolerance

“…psychopathological processes, such as the role of anxiety and depression [17]. processes involved in symptom perception and amplification [13,14,18,21] and socioeconomic factors [3,53].…”

“…Increased rates of psychiatric co-morbidity is frequently reported, often in terms of major depression, somatoform disorders, anxiety or panic disorder [17]. Sensitization and conditioning processes have been suggested as mechanisms involved in the acquisition and maintenance of IEI [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25], while others have speculated that IEI can be conceptualized and studied as a pain disorder [26]. Persistent pain states may involve central plasticity changes [26] and, as in pain disorders, it may be hypothesized that psychological factors play a role in various phases of IEI, such as in the transition from acute to persistent states [26].…”