Reduced empathic pain processing in patients with somatoform pain disorder: Evidence from behavioral and neurophysiological measures

Peng, Weiwei; Meng, Jing; Lou, Yixue; Li, Xinyu; Lei, Yi; Yan, Dong

doi:10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2019.03.004

Cited by 29 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 47 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Unlike acute pain, patients with chronic pain are frequently associated with depression (Breivik, Collett, Ventafridda, Cohen, & Gallacher, ; Gureje et al, ), which leads to clinically manifested anhedonia and diminished motivation for natural reinforcers. As a result, chronic pain patients may exhibit social withdrawal behaviors, such as reduced empathy (Peng et al, ) and dissatisfaction with social activities (Kerns, Rosenberg, & Otis, ). These findings support a combined reward deficiency and antireward model in pain chronification (Borsook et al, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pain modulates neural responses to reward in the medial prefrontal cortex

Wang

Bao

Gao

et al. 2019

Human Brain Mapping

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Pain has been found to promote reward‐seeking behaviors, which might be a consequence of modulated brain activities in the reward neural circuitry in a painful state. The present study investigated how pain affected reward processing and reward‐related neural activities using fMRI technique. A total of 50 healthy participants were recruited and used for data analyses, with half being treated with topical capsaicin cream and the other half with hand cream (treatment: pain or control). The participants were asked to perform a card‐guessing game when their brain activities responding to feedbacks (outcome: win or loss) were recorded. Behavioral results showed that participants in pain group overestimated their correct choices in the card‐guess game. Whole‐brain fMRI analysis revealed that the main effect of outcome (win vs. loss) activated a typical network of the reward neural circuitry, including the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and the bilateral nucleus accumbens (NAcc). Importantly, the region of interest analysis revealed a significant interaction of treatment and outcome in the mPFC, with increased mPFC neural activity responding to win outcome in pain condition. Moreover, the functional connectivity between the mPFC and the NAcc was decreased in pain condition. We conclude that the pain‐induced modulation of the mPFC activity could result in alterations of both the emotional response to and the cognitive evaluation of reward.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pain modulates neural responses to reward in the medial prefrontal cortex

Wang

Bao

Gao

et al. 2019

Human Brain Mapping

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Alexithymia, which includes difficulty in the expression of feelings and is highly prevalent in alexithymic asthma individuals (Ghorbani et al, 2017;Khosravani et al, 2016), may reduce empathy skills (Çaka, Topal, Nemut, & Çınar, 2018;Gramaglia et al, 2016) and psychophysiological responses to empathy in individuals with physical symptoms (Peng et al, 2019). Recognizing others' emotional and cognitive states (i.e.…”

Section: Structural Equation Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Alexithymia, empathy, negative affect and physical symptoms in patients with asthma

Khosravani

Ardestani

Alvani

et al. 2020

Clin Psychology and Psychoth

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Although alexithymia has been found to be associated with physical symptoms in psychosomatic disorders such as asthma, mechanisms linking this association are unknown. However, affective alexithymic features may be associated with physical symptoms in the presence of deficits in affective characteristics such as low empathy and high negative affect. This study aimed to assess direct effects of alexithymic traits on physical symptoms and indirect effects of these subscales through empathy and negative affect (e.g. depressive, anxious and stress symptoms) by controlling for asthma severity in patients with asthma. Three hundred patients with asthma completed the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 (TAS-20), the Basic Empathy Scale (BES), the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales-21 (DASS-21) and the Physical Symptoms Inventory (PSI). After controlling for asthma severity, the results showed that alexithymia subscales of the TAS-20 had no direct effects on physical symptoms, but the difficulty in identifying feelings (DIF) subscale of the TAS-20 was associated with affective empathy and negative affect. Affective empathy was significantly related to negative affect. Affective empathy and negative affect were associated with physical symptoms. The affective subscale of alexithymia on the TAS-20, that is DIF, indirectly affected physical symptoms through affective empathy and negative affect. Findings suggest that patients with asthma who have high levels of DIF may show high physical symptoms in the presence of low affective empathy and high negative affect.

show abstract

“…Koelen et al [28] hypothesized that the interpersonal difficulties that individuals with MUSS often experience stem from reduced empathy toward others. For example, Peng et al [39] showed reduced empathy toward somatic pain of others in patients with MUSS. Also, de Greck et al [21] found disturbed emotional empathy and altered brain activity in regions related to emotional processing in patients with MUSS.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Attachment and Crying in Patients with Medically Unexplained Somatic Symptoms

Jansman

Riem

Broekhuizen-Dijksman

et al. 2019

SN Compr. Clin. Med.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Mentalization deficits and disturbances in emotional functioning may contribute to somatization in patients with medically unexplained somatic symptoms (MUSS). The present study aimed to increase understanding the psychological factors that contribute to somatization by examining associations between attachment, crying attitudes and behavior, and somatic symptoms in these patients. Attachment security was measured with the Experiences in Close Relationships Questionnaire in sixty-eight outpatients diagnosed with MUSS. Somatic symptom severity was measured with the RAND-36, crying frequency, and attitudes with the Adult Crying Inventory. Patients were asked to evaluate photographs of crying individuals in order to assess the perception of crying and empathic responses to crying. Attachment anxiety was significantly related to somatic symptom severity and negative attitudes toward crying. In addition, somatic symptom severity was related to a more negative attitude toward crying and less awareness of the interpersonal impact of crying on others. The association between attachment anxiety and somatic symptoms was, however, not mediated by crying or negative attitude toward crying. Neither were there significant associations between attachment, somatic symptoms, and empathic responses to crying. Altered attitudes to crying may stem from a history of insecure attachment experiences and may reflect maladaptive emotion strategies in MUSS patients.

show abstract

Reduced empathic pain processing in patients with somatoform pain disorder: Evidence from behavioral and neurophysiological measures

Cited by 29 publications

References 47 publications

Pain modulates neural responses to reward in the medial prefrontal cortex

Pain modulates neural responses to reward in the medial prefrontal cortex

Alexithymia, empathy, negative affect and physical symptoms in patients with asthma

Attachment and Crying in Patients with Medically Unexplained Somatic Symptoms

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About