Do we experience more pain when anxious?: Investigating anxiety as a moderator between negative expectancies and the nocebo effect.

The nocebo effect is the adverse physical or emotional response after administering an inert treatment. Previous research suggests that learned negative expectancy is the underlying mechanism. However, recent findings show that many other psychological factors, such as anxiety, might have an influencing role, especially when focusing on pain. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the relationship between negative expectancies and the nocebo effect, as well as anxiety as the moderator of that relationship. The final sample consisted of 20 healthy participants divided into the nocebo and control groups. During the conditioning phase, as opposed to the control group, participants in the nocebo group were conditioned to expect high-intensity electrical stimulus after seeing a certain colour cue (purple or yellow) and a medium stimulus after the other colour cue (yellow or purple). During the testing phase, they would always receive medium stimuli after each colour cue in both...Show moreThe nocebo effect is the adverse physical or emotional response after administering an inert treatment. Previous research suggests that learned negative expectancy is the underlying mechanism. However, recent findings show that many other psychological factors, such as anxiety, might have an influencing role, especially when focusing on pain. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the relationship between negative expectancies and the nocebo effect, as well as anxiety as the moderator of that relationship. The final sample consisted of 20 healthy participants divided into the nocebo and control groups. During the conditioning phase, as opposed to the control group, participants in the nocebo group were conditioned to expect high-intensity electrical stimulus after seeing a certain colour cue (purple or yellow) and a medium stimulus after the other colour cue (yellow or purple). During the testing phase, they would always receive medium stimuli after each colour cue in both groups. The analysis of the first hypothesis yielded significant results (p < .001) suggesting that negative expectancies do lead to the nocebo effect. However, the analysis investigating anxiety as a moderator did not find significant results (p = .872). The first finding is in line with previous studies and has important clinical implications regarding the experience of symptoms and side effects. The second non-significant finding could be due to the limited sample, the design of the study or due to the complexity of the anxiety distinction.Show less

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Do we experience more pain when anxious? Investigating anxiety as a moderator between negative expectancies and the nocebo effect.