Pain perception essay

In particular, numerous studies show that the response to treatment and outcome of the disease is largely determined by cognitive factors such as perceptions, attitudes and expectations of the patient. For example, Hayes et al. (2012) found that patients with chronic pain who consider their pain an “inexplicable mystery” show higher levels of psychological distress and pain as well as lower adherence to treatment than those patients who feel that they understand the causes of pain.

From the viewpoint of emotional processes, pain perception is directly associated with the level of anxiety (Mann et al., 2013). The data demonstrate that the high level of anxiety promotes pain intensity; the relation of chronic pain and depression take a special place. Studies clearly show that there is two-way relation between depression and pain: the pain may occur repeatedly in a patient suffering from depression, and vice versa, depressive disorders are often formed in patients with chronic pains (Hayes et al., 2012, p. 425). In addition, frustration, irritability, pain-related fear and concern about how to avoid the harmful effects can significantly aggravate the symptoms of the disease, block motivation and positive attitude to treatment (Karp et al., 2008, p. 117; Lingaraju and Ashburn, 2013).
Thus, there is a relationship between emotional state and cognitive-interpretive processes which results in reflections affecting the mood, mood affecting the evaluation and, ultimately, the experience of pain.