Acute Pain
Conditions
Brief summary
Research on self-compassion suggests its impact in the context of pain. In the current study, the investigators evaluate a short self-compassion intervention for coping with acute pain.
Detailed description
Self-compassion comprises three components: self-kindness, common humanity and mindfulness. Empirical evidence shows the relevance of self-compassion in the context of negative emotions such as depression, anxiety and anger. Research on chronic pain is promising yet limited. Self-compassion is associated with better pain-coping, pain-acceptance and quality of life, as well as reduced pain-related disability and burdening emotions. Experimental investigations on induced pain are missing. The aim of the current study is to evaluate a short self-compassion intervention for pain. First, a heat stimulus is induced to all participants which is to be tolerated as long as possible and evaluated in intensity and unpleasantness. Next, participants receive a coping-strategy which they are randomly assigned to. Three different strategies are evaluated: (1) self-compassion, treating oneself with kindness while being mindfully aware of the painful stimulus, (2) acceptance, accepting the painful stimulus as well as pain-related thoughts, not trying to change, (3) distraction, distracting oneself from the painful stimulus and trying not to perceive the pain or painful thoughts. Participants practice the strategy with the painful heat stimulus three times. Then, they receive another heat stimulus which is to be tolerated as long as possible and evaluated. During the next week, participants obtain daily practices via e-mail for further fostering of the learned strategy. Finally, participants receive, tolerate and evaluate pain again in the laboratory.
Interventions
OTHERSelf-Compassion
Participants are introduced to the concept of self-compassion. Treating oneself with kindness, while being mindfully aware of the present moment as well as the fact that suffering is part of human life - a shared human experience. Participants are instructed to use this strategy to cope with the following heat stimulus.
OTHERAcceptance
Participants are introduced to the concept of acceptance. Thoughts, Emotions and Reactions do not need to be related. Being aware of the present moment helps with accepting the present state and reacting contradictory to the thoughts and feelings. Participants are instructed to use this strategy to cope with the following heat stimulus.
OTHERDistraction
Participants are introduced to the concept of distraction. Distracting oneself from the present situation helps with not perceiving pain, painful thoughts or feelings. Participants are instructed to use this strategy to cope with the following heat stimulus.
OTHERHeat pain
Participants receive heat pain stimuli using the Thermo Sensory Analyser (TSA-II), a commonly used device to study pain sensation and analgesic effects.
Sponsors
Philipps University Marburg
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Intervention model description
Participants are randomly assigned to one of three experimental groups in parallel for the duration of the study
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* sufficient german language knowledge * at least 18 years old
Exclusion criteria
* acute or chronic pain conditions * drug or pain-medication (last 24 hours) * Raynaud's disease * high blood pressure * neuropathy, coronary diseases * diabetes, current alcohol * studying psychology longer than two years
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Individual heat pain tolerance | Baseline, 45 min, 1 week | Change in the individual heat pain tolerance (the point when participants cannot stand the heat pain stimulus any longer) |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Pain intensity | Baseline, 45 min, 1 week | Change in subjective pain intensity assessed using a numeric rating scale (ranging from 0 to 10, with higher values reflecting more pain intensity) |
| Change in pain unpleasantness scale | Baseline, 45 min, 1 week | Change in subjective pain unpleasentness assessed using a numeric rating scale (ranging from 0 to 10, with higher values reflecting more pain unpleasentness) |
| Change in self-compassion | Baseline, 45 min, 1 week | Change in overall self-compassion assessed using the self-compassion scale (Neff, 2003) (higher values indicating higher self-compassion |
Countries
Germany
Outcome results
None listed