Paradoxical pain perception in PTSD: The unique role of anxiety and dissociation

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and chronic pain often co-occur and exacerbate each other. Elucidating the mechanism of this co-occurrence therefore has clinical importance. Previously, PTSD patients with chronic pain were found to demonstrate a unique, paradoxical pain profile: hyper-responsiveness together with hyposensitivity to pain. Our aim was to examine whether two seemingly paradoxical facets of PTSD - anxiety and dissociation - underlie this paradoxical profile.PTSD patients (n=32) and healthy controls (n=43) underwent psychophysical testing and completed questionnaires.

from The Journal of Pain http://ift.tt/1UM6AXb
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