Abstract
The assessment of persistent pain often relies on recalling and then summarizing the
entire pain experience using a single rating. Newer methodologies, such as the Original
Pain Recall Assessment, ask people to recall the pain they experienced over a specific
period of time by tracing a single line in a graph to represent their pain levels.
One advantage of this approach is that one can compare recalled levels of pain with
actual daily diary pain ratings. This methodology was used to investigate the effects
of neuroticism on the recall of levels and patterns of persistent pain. The study
involved 70 participants who completed a measure of neuroticism, depressive symptoms,
and up to 15 daily diaries that asked for ratings of pain intensity, pain unpleasantness,
and activity interference due to pain. Following completion of the daily diary period,
the participants were asked to recall the entire diary period using the Original Pain
Recall Assessment methodology. The analyses revealed that higher levels of neuroticism
were related to significantly better recall of the variability of pain unpleasantness
over time. Furthermore, individuals who reported higher levels of depressive symptoms
were less accurate in the recall of pain in general.
Perspective
Memory for pain is crucial in the assessment of pain, with little research devoted
to the study of this topic. The current study demonstrates that people higher on neuroticism
had better recall of pain unpleasantness, and people with higher levels of depressive
symptoms had poorer recall of pain in general.
Key words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: May 20, 2013
Accepted:
March 14,
2013
Received in revised form:
February 21,
2013
Received:
September 17,
2012
Footnotes
The study was not supported by any grant funding sources.
This study is the original work of the authors and neither author has any conflicts of interest or financial interest in the research.
Identification
Copyright
© 2013 American Pain Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
