Papers by Dimitri Van Ryckeghem
The Moderating Role of Attention Control in the Relationship Between Pain Catastrophizing and Negatively-Biased Pain Memories in Youth With Chronic Pain
The Journal of Pain, Oct 1, 2021
The present study examined the role of attention control in understanding the development of nega... more The present study examined the role of attention control in understanding the development of negatively-biased pain memories as well as its moderating role in the relationship between pain catastrophizing and negatively-biased pain memories. Youth with chronic pain (N = 105) performed a cold pressor task (CPT) and completed self-report measures of state/trait pain catastrophizing and attention control, with the latter comprising both attention focusing and attention shifting. Two weeks after the CPT, youth's pain-related memories were elicited via telephone allowing to compute pain and anxiety memory bias indices (i.e., recalling pain intensity or pain-related anxiety, respectively, as higher than initially reported). Results indicated no main effects of attention control and pain catastrophizing on pain memories. However, both components of attention control (i.e., attention focusing and attention shifting) moderated the impact of pain catastrophizing on youth's memory bias, with opposite interaction effects. Specifically, whereas high levels of attention shifting buffered the influence of high pain catastrophizing on the development of pain memory bias, high levels of attention focusing strengthened the influence of high pain catastrophizing on the development of anxiety memory bias. Interaction effects were confined to trait catastrophizing (i.e., not state catastrophizing). Theoretical and clinical implications are discussed. PERSPECTIVE: This article investigates the role of attention control in the development of negatively-biased pain memories in children with chronic pain. Findings underscore the importance of targeting differential components of attention control and can inform intervention efforts to minimize the development of negatively biased pain memories in youth with chronic pain.
Health Psychology Review, Sep 19, 2018
Studies investigating attentional biases towards pain information vary widely in both design and ... more Studies investigating attentional biases towards pain information vary widely in both design and results. The aim of this meta-analysis was to determine the degree to which attentional biases towards pain occur when measured with the dot-probe task. A total of 2168 references were screened, resulting in a final sample of 4466 participants from 52 articles. Participants were grouped according to pain experience: chronic pain, acute pain, anticipating experimental/procedural pain, social concern for pain, or healthy people. In general, results revealed a significant, but small bias towards pain words (d = 0.136), and pain pictures (d = 0.110) in chronic pain patients, but not in those with acute pain, those anticipating pain, or healthy people. Follow-up analyses revealed an attentional bias towards sensory pain words in the chronic pain group (d = 0.198), and the acute pain group (d = 0.303), but not other groups. In contrast, attentional biases towards affective pain stimuli were not significant for any pain groups. This meta-analysis found support for attentional biases towards sensory pain stimuli in patients with chronic pain in comparison to healthy individuals across a range of common parameters. Future researchers need to consider task design when seeking to optimally measure pain-relevant attentional biases.
BMJ Open, May 1, 2021
Purpose Neuropathic pain is a common disorder of the somatosensory system that affects 7%-10% of ... more Purpose Neuropathic pain is a common disorder of the somatosensory system that affects 7%-10% of the general population. The disorder places a large social and economic burden on patients as well as healthcare services. However, not everyone with a relevant underlying aetiology develops corresponding pain. DOLORisk Dundee, a European Union-funded cohort, part of the multicentre DOLORisk consortium, was set up to increase current understanding of this variation in onset. In particular, the cohort will allow exploration of psychosocial, clinical and genetic predictors of neuropathic pain onset. Participants DOLORisk Dundee has been constructed by rephenotyping two pre-existing Scottish population cohorts for neuropathic pain using a standardised 'core' study protocol: Genetics of Diabetes Audit and Research in Tayside Scotland (GoDARTS) (n=5236) consisting of predominantly type 2 diabetics from the Tayside region, and Generation Scotland: Scottish Family Health Study (GS:SFHS; n=20 221). Rephenotyping was conducted in two phases: a baseline postal survey and a combined postal and online follow-up survey. DOLORisk Dundee consists of 9155 participants (GoDARTS=1915; GS:SFHS=7240) who responded to the baseline survey, of which 6338 (69.2%; GoDARTS=1046; GS:SFHS=5292) also responded to the follow-up survey (18 months later). Findings to date At baseline, the proportion of those with chronic neuropathic pain (Douleur Neuropathique en 4 Questions questionnaire score ≥3, duration ≥3 months) was 30.5% in GoDARTS and 14.2% in Generation Scotland. Electronic record linkage enables large scale genetic association studies to be conducted and risk models have been constructed for neuropathic pain. Future plans The cohort is being maintained by an access committee, through which collaborations are encouraged. Details of how to do this will be available on the study website (http:// dolorisk. eu/). Further follow-up surveys of the cohort are planned and funding applications are being prepared to this effect. This will be conducted in harmony with similar pain rephenotyping of UK Biobank.
Development and Evaluation of Linguistic Stimuli for Pain Research
The Journal of Pain, Jun 1, 2023
Pain, May 8, 2020
Attentional biases are posited to play a key role in the development and maintenance of chronic p... more Attentional biases are posited to play a key role in the development and maintenance of chronic pain in adults and youth. However, research to date has yielded mixed findings and few studies have examined attentional biases in pediatric samples. The present study used eye-gaze tracking to examine attentional biases to pain-related stimuli in a clinical sample of youth with chronic pain and pain-free controls. The moderating role of attentional control was also examined. Youth with chronic pain (n = 102) and pain-free controls (n = 53) viewed images of children depicting varying levels of pain expressiveness paired with neutral faces while their eye gaze was recorded. Attentional control was assessed using both a questionnaire and a behavioural task. Both groups were more likely to first fixate on high pain faces but showed no such orienting bias for moderate or low pain faces. Youth with chronic pain fixated longer on all pain faces than neutral faces, whereas youth in the control group exhibited a total fixation bias only for high and moderate pain faces. Attentional control did not moderate attentional biases between or within groups. The results lend support to theoretical models positing the presence of attentional biases
What can we learn about selective attention processes in individuals with chronic pain using reaction time tasks? A systematic review and meta-analysis
Pain
Information-processing biases such as attentional, interpretation, and memory biases are believed... more Information-processing biases such as attentional, interpretation, and memory biases are believed to play a role in exacerbating and maintaining chronic pain (CP). Evidence suggests that individuals with CP show attentional bias toward pain-related information. However, the selective attentional processes that underpin this bias are not always well outlined in the literature. To improve current understanding, a systematic review was performed using a descriptive synthesis of reaction time-based studies. A random-effects meta-analysis was added to explore whether the results of previous meta-analyses would be confirmed using studies with a larger sample size. For this review, 2008 studies were screened from 4 databases, of which 34 (participant n = 3154) were included in the review and a subset of 15 (participant n = 1339) were included in the meta-analysis. Review results were summarised by producing a descriptive synthesis for all studies. Meta-analysis results indicated a mild sig...
The relation between children's attention bias to pain and children's pain-related memory biases is moderated by parental narrative style
Behaviour Research and Therapy
PLOS ONE
Rapidly attending towards potentially harmful stimuli to prevent possible damage to the body is a... more Rapidly attending towards potentially harmful stimuli to prevent possible damage to the body is a critical component of adaptive behavior. Research suggests that individuals display an attentional bias, i.e., preferential allocation of attention, for consciously perceived bodily sensations that signal potential threat, like itch or pain. Evidence is not yet clear whether an attentional bias also exists for stimuli that have been presented for such a short duration that they do not enter the stream of consciousness. This study investigated whether a preconscious attentional bias towards itch-related pictures exists in 127 healthy participants and whether this can be influenced by priming with mild itch-related stimuli compared to control stimuli. Mild itch was induced with von Frey monofilaments and scratching sounds, while control stimuli where of matched modalities but neutral. Attentional bias was measured with a subliminal pictorial dot-probe task. Moreover, we investigated how a...
Attentional bias malleability as a predictor of daily pain interference
Pain
Attentional interference, but no attentional bias, by tonic itch and pain stimulation
Itch
The Effect of a Pain Educational Video Upon Child Pain-Related Memory and the Moderating Role of Parental Pain- and Non-Pain-Attending Verbalizations: An Experimental Lab-Based Study
Journal of Pediatric Psychology
Objectives Early memories of pain contribute to fear and may underlie the maintenance and develop... more Objectives Early memories of pain contribute to fear and may underlie the maintenance and development of chronic pain into adulthood. Accordingly, understanding determinants that may impact children’s pain memory development is key. This study examined (a) the effect of a brief engaging pain educational video in healthy children before undergoing an experimental pain task upon children’s recalled pain intensity and pain-related fear and (b) the moderating role of parental pain- and non-pain-attending verbalizations before and after the pain task. Methods Seventy-seven children (8–15 years old) participated in an experimental heat pain task, including actual heat pain stimuli delivered through a thermode on their forearm. Children were randomized to the experimental group (i.e., watching a pain educational video) or the control group (i.e., no video). Children’s recalled pain intensity and pain-related fear were elicited 2 weeks later. Results Findings showed that recalled pain inten...
Pain, 2021
A large body of evidence indicates how pain affects motor control, yet the way the motor system i... more A large body of evidence indicates how pain affects motor control, yet the way the motor system influences pain perception remains unclear. We present two experiments that investigated sensory attenuation of pain implementing a two-alternative forced choice paradigm. Particularly, healthy participants received painful stimuli on a moving and nonmoving hand during the execution or the preparation of reaching motor actions. At the end of each trial they indicated on which hand they perceived the stimulus stronger. The Point of Subjective Equality was obtained to measure sensory attenuation. The intensity (experiment 1) and the threat value (experiment 2) of the pain stimuli were manipulated between-subjects to examine their impact on sensory attenuation. Results of experiment 1 (N=68) revealed that executing a motor action attenuates pain processing in the moving hand. Sensory attenuation during motor preparation only occurred with stronger stimulus intensities. Sensory attenuation was not affected by the intensity of the pain stimuli. Results of experiment 2 (N=79) replicated the phenomenon of sensory attenuation of pain during motor action execution. However, sensory attenuation was not affected by the threat value of pain. Together these findings indicate that executing, but not preparing, a motor action affects pain processing in that body part. No significant associations were found between sensory attenuation indices and inhibitory control abilities or pain catastrophizing, vigilance and rumination. These results provide insight in the inhibitory effects of motor actions on pain processing, suggesting that pain perception is a dynamic experience susceptible to individuals' actions in the environment.
JMIR Research Protocols, 2021
Background To date, research has found variable success in using attentional bias modification tr... more Background To date, research has found variable success in using attentional bias modification training (ABMT) procedures in pain samples. Several factors could contribute to these mixed findings, including boredom and low motivation. Indeed, training paradigms are repetitive, which can lead to disengagement and high dropout rates. A potential approach to overcoming some of these barriers is to attempt to increase motivation and engagement through gamification (ie, the use of game elements) of this procedure. To date, research has yet to explore the gamified format of ABMT for chronic pain and its potential for the transfer of benefits. Objective The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of a gamified web-delivered ABMT intervention in a sample of adults with chronic pain via a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Methods A total of 120 adults with chronic musculoskeletal pain, recruited from clinical (hospital outpatient waiting list) and nonclinical (wider...
Cognitive biases are a core component of contemporary cognitive-affective models that try to expl... more Cognitive biases are a core component of contemporary cognitive-affective models that try to explain pain experience, distress and disability in children and adults experiencing pain. The idea that children and adults with pain show cognitive biases for pain-related information, i.e. 10 they selectively attend to pain-related information at the cost of other information (attentional bias), interpret ambiguous stimuli as pain-related (interpretation bias) or have biased memories for painful events (memory bias), has been particularly influential in this context. Notwithstanding the considerable progress made in the understanding of cognitive biases related to pain and threat, a number of questions remains unanswered and future challenges 15 linger. A first challenge is to further delineate the characteristics of cognitive biases, including their content specificity and dynamics. A second challenge relates to the understanding of how cognitive biases interrelate with each other and po...
Cognitive intrusion and pain dominance:a new scale to measure attentional disruption by pain
Pain, 2021
Many patients experience pain after surgery. Psychological factors such as emotion and cognition ... more Many patients experience pain after surgery. Psychological factors such as emotion and cognition are shown to be associated with the development of acute and chronic postsurgical pain (CPSP). Therefore, the question arises whether targeting these psychological factors can reduce negative postsurgical outcomes. The aim of the current review was to investigate the efficacy of perioperative psychological interventions in reducing (sub)acute postsurgical pain and CPSP and disability in adults. Randomized controlled trials were identified through 4 databases (Web of Science, PsychINFO, PubMed, and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature [CINAHL]). The outcomes of interest were (sub)acute (ie, within 3 months after surgery) and chronic (>3 months after surgery) pain and disability. After screening, 21 studies were included in the final analyses. It was found that psychological interventions significantly reduced (sub)acute pain (d = −0.26, 95% confidence interval [CI] ...
European Journal of Pain, 2021
BackgroundPain neuroscience education (PNE) has received increasing research attention demonstrat... more BackgroundPain neuroscience education (PNE) has received increasing research attention demonstrating beneficial effects on pain‐related outcomes in adults. Conversely, studies on the effectiveness of PNE in children are scarce.MethodsThis study investigated the effect of a pain educational video intervention on child pain‐related outcomes (i.e. experienced pain intensity, pain‐related fear and catastrophic worry about pain, pain threshold and pain knowledge) in healthy children undergoing an experimental pain task. Furthermore, the moderating role of children's demographic (i.e. sex and age) and psychological (i.e. baseline pain knowledge and anticipated pain intensity, pain‐related fear and catastrophic worry) characteristics was examined. Participants were 89 children (Mage = 11.85, SD = 1.78), randomly assigned to either a condition whereby they were instructed to watch a brief pain educational video (i.e. experimental group) or to a control condition whereby they did not wat...
European Journal of Pain, 2021
The current study provides novel insights into the working mechanisms of mindfulnessdriven pain m... more The current study provides novel insights into the working mechanisms of mindfulnessdriven pain modulation. Our data suggest that brief mindfulness training may reduce the influence of prior beliefs and expectations on pain perception. This finding adds to growing evidence suggesting that mindfulness may alleviate pain via neuropsychological mechanisms opposite to those typically observed in conditioning/placebo procedures and other cognitive manipulations. These unique mechanisms underline the potential of mindfulness as an alternative to traditional cognitive pain regulatory strategies.
Psychologica Belgica, 2021
To limit the spread of COVID-19, many countries, including Belgium, have installed physical dista... more To limit the spread of COVID-19, many countries, including Belgium, have installed physical distancing measures. Yet, adherence to these newly installed behavioral measures has been described as challenging and effortful. Based on the Health Action Process Approach (HAPA) model, this study performed an in-depth evaluation of when, why, and how people deviated from the physical distancing measures. An online mixed-method study was conducted among Belgian adults (N = 2055) in the beginning of May 2020. Participants were recruited via an open call through email and social media platforms, using snowball sampling. Conditions wherein people deviated from the physical distancing measures were assessed by means of an open-ended question. HAPA determinants were assessed in a quantitative way. Half of the sample reported to deviate from the measures. Further, deviation from the measures was associated with each determinant outlined by the HAPA. Findings highlight that many people deviated from the measures because of their need for social contact. The majority of the people who deviated from the measures stated that they carefully weighed the risks of their behavior. Need for social contact pushed people to deviate from physical distancing measures in a deliberate manner. Potential areas for future interventions aimed at promoting adherence to physical distancing measures and enhancing psychosocial wellbeing are discussed.
Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being, 2020
BackgroundThe COVID‐19 pandemic requires massive and rapid behavior change. The Health Action Pro... more BackgroundThe COVID‐19 pandemic requires massive and rapid behavior change. The Health Action Process Approach (HAPA) describes personal determinants that play a key role in behavior change. This study investigated whether these determinants are associated with adherence to physical distancing measures to prevent the spread of COVID‐19 (i.e. keeping 1.5 m physical distance and staying at home). Decreased psychosocial well‐being and lack of social support were explored as barriers to adherence.MethodsTwo cross‐sectional surveys were conducted among adults in Belgium. The first survey (N = 2,379; March 2020) focused on adherence to physical distancing measures. The second survey (N = 805; April 2020) focused on difficulty with, and perseverance in, adhering to these measures. Linear regression models were fitted to examine associations with HAPA determinants, psychosocial well‐being, and social support.ResultsSelf‐efficacy, outcome expectancies, intention, action planning, and coping ...
Uploads
Papers by Dimitri Van Ryckeghem