Emotion regulation and peripheral psychophysiological correlates in the management of induced pain: A systematic review

Abstract

Cognitive reappraisal and acceptance strategies have been shown to be effective in reducing pain experience and increasing pain tolerance. However, no systematic reviews have focused on the relationship between the use of these two strategies and peripheral physiological correlates when pain is experimentally induced. This systematic review aims to summarize the existing literature that explores the relationship between emotion regulation strategies (i.e., cognitive reappraisal and acceptance) and peripheral correlates of the autonomic nervous system and facial electromyography, such as affect-modulated responses and corrugator activity, on laboratory tasks where pain is induced. The systematic review identifies nine experimental studies that meet our inclusion criteria, none of which compare these strategies. Although cognitive reappraisal and acceptance strategies appear to be associated with decreased psychological responses, mixed results were found for the effects of the use of both strategies on all the physiological correlates. These inconsistencies between the studies might be explained by the high methodological heterogeneity in the task designs, as well as a lack of consistency between the instructions used in the different studies for cognitive reappraisal, acceptance, and the control conditions.

Explaining the Components of Resilience in Patients with Chronic Pain: A Qualitative Content Analysis

“…They acknowledged that negative emotions such as stress and thoughts reduce pain tolerance and vice versa. Consistent with many previous studies,[ 30 31 32 33 ] the present findings showed that awareness of the impact of emotions and emotional control plays a vital role in pain resilience. In line with the current study’s findings, West et al .…”

Emotion Regulation in the Management of Fear of Pain: Subjective and Psychophysiological Correlates

“…However, heart rate differences were found for induction, but not for anticipation periods. In this sense, the inconsistences found in previous studies suggest that emotion regulation success depend not only on the emotion regulation strategy that is used, but also on the moment when reappraisal is implemented (Jaén et al, 2021a).…”

“…In addition, the high heterogeneity in the reappraisal instructions used in laboratory settings, as well as the lack of consistency in the operationalization of the emotion regulation strategies makes it difficult to draw general conclusions on each strategy (Jaén et al, 2021a). Consequently, there is the urgent need to deepen our understanding of the mechanisms underlying clinical interventions to manage negative emotions, and to examine the commonalities and differences of each of these specific processes (Jaén et al 2021a;Arch & Crascke, 2008).…”

“…A small number of studies have focused on ER strategies during the anticipation of pain (Jaén, Díaz-García, et al, 2021), and they have shown mixed results. Specifically, some studies found reduced anxiety self-reports and modulated psychophysiological responses associated with the activation of the defensive system Windich-Biermeier et al, 2007).…”