A relação entre as variáveis demográficas e os resultados encontrados na aplicação do fast

: individual differences in experimental pain variability in response to the focused analgesia selection test

Abstract

Introduction: Pain is present in several diseases and has a significant negative impact onthe quality of life. The difficulties in defining the concept, accurately reporting, andassessing pain has been considered the main reasons for the failure of clinical trials toevaluate the effectiveness of new analgesic medications. In this study it is explained theconcept and history of pain, the neuromodulation and the ascending as descendingpathways, the different types of classification of pain, the impact of the memory whileprocessing pain, the most common forms of pain assessment, the way people perceivedifferently the pain and the impacts that individual variables have in reporting pain skills.Objectives: This study is based on the following objectives: the differences in theexperimental variability of FAST (measured through R², ICC, CoV) in the two culturalstudies (Portugal and Israel; to study a relationship between individual differences(measured through the comparative groups) and how differences in the variabilityobtained through the FAST (measured through the R², ICC, CoV); to study a comparisonbetween the demographic differences (age, sex, years of schooling, marital status, andBMI) and how differences in the accessible variability of the FAST ( Mean of the R²,ICC, through CoV); and, using correlating the relationships between the last short-termmemory capacity (measured through the Digit Memory task) and the experimentalvariability of FAST pain reports (measured from the R², ICC, Cov).Method: This retrospective study involved the analysis of the results of 452 healthyindividuals to whom, in two laboratories, the focused analgesia selection test (FAST) wasapplied, which allows the measurement of variability in reports of pain induced byexperimental stimuli. Demographic information (age, gender, education, civil status,BMI) and individual characteristics were obtained through the following questionnaires:SCS-R; PSQ; PCS; LOT; BAQ; HADS; MAIA. Furthermore, short-term memory wasevaluated through the Digit Memory test.Results: The collected data showed that there is high dispersion in the results ofvariability in pain reports. There are associations between gender, civil status and paincatastrophizing compared to the FAST results and some correlations were also foundbetween Digit Span and the two study sites and with the FAST results.Final Conclusion: The results suggest that gender, culture, and short-term memory skillsmay impact the variability in reports of experimentally induced pain. Furtherinvestigation of these relationships is necessary for a better understanding of the processesinvolved in pain intensity assessment.

Date of Award	21 Feb 2022
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Rita Canaipa (Supervisor)