Because pain signals potential harm to the organism, it immediately attracts attention and
motivates decisions and action. However, pain is also subject to motivations—an aspect that …

Pain elicits fear and anxiety and promotes escape, avoidance, and adaptive behaviors that
are essential for survival. When pain persists, motivational priority and attention shift to pain …

In the understanding of chronic pain, hypotheses derived from psychological theories,
together with insights from physiological assessments and brain imaging, highlight the …

High-pain expectancy increases pain and pain-related brain activity, creating a cycle of
psychologically maintained pain. Though these effects are robust, little is known about how …

Attention is a key concept in many theories of pain perception. A clinically popular idea is
that pain is more intense in persons who are hypervigilant for or bias their attention to pain …

According to fear-avoidance models, a catastrophic interpretation of a painful experience
may give rise to pain-related fear and avoidance, leading to the development and …

There have been anecdotal accounts for centuries of people apparently experiencing little or
no pain in situations that most of us would find excruciating. Yet, western medicine has given …

Acutely, pain is protective. It promotes escape from, and future avoidance of, noxious stimuli
through strong and often lifetime associative memories. However, with persistent acute pain …

Pain is mostly thought of as a problem—as debilitating or harmful. Despite its
unpleasantness, however, under some conditions pain can be associated with positive …

Substantial evidence reveals that the fear of pain and pain anxiety play a significant role in
the development of chronic pain and disability, although underlying mechanisms remain …