Painful Words Stand Out For Those Suffering From Acute, Chronic Pain

Those dealing with acute and chronic symptoms of pain are more likely to understand "painful" words, according to recent findings published in the Journal of Pain Research.

"People suffering from chronic pain pay more frequent and longer attention to pain-related words than individuals who are pain-free," said Samantha Fashler, a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Health and the lead author of the study, in a news release. "Our eye movements - the things we look at - generally reflect what we attend to, and knowing how and what people pay attention to can be helpful in determining who develops chronic pain."

Researchers at York University discovered that about 20 percent of the population in Canada are affected by chronic pain, these individuals are more likely to note pain-related words.

After using a neutral and pain-related words machine to track chronic pain and reaction time, researchers found that "the eye-tracking technology captured eye gaze patterns with millimetre precision."

"We now know that people with and without chronic pain differ in terms of how, where and when they attend to pain-related words. This is a first step in identifying whether the attentional bias is involved in making pain more intense or more salient to the person in pain," added co study-author Professor Joel Katz, Canada Research Chair in Health Psychology.

For more information regarding the findings, visit the website on The Human Pain Mechanisms Lab.