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Abstract:
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Prior research has shown that affective valence and arousal interact to alter pain
perception. One personally relevant method of inducing affective states is the written
emotional disclosure procedure. The current study examined the immediate effects of
written emotional disclosure on secondary hyperalgesia, flare, and spontaneous pain in
healthy undergraduate men and women. Fifty-five men and women undergraduates
participated in an IRB approved experiment in which they wrote about a traumatic or
neutral event fro twenty minutes. After writing, the participants underwent pain
perception testing for area of secondary hyperalgesia, flare, and spontaneous pain.
Results indicated that women writing about a traumatic experience rated their
spontaneous pain as more intense than those writing about a neutral topic, whereas males
did not. In addition, men showed greater physiological arousal and area of flare than
women. These findings suggest that men and women experience different affective and
pain modulatory reactions to written emotional disclosure, though the underlying
mechanisms remain to be elucidated. |
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