Modeling pain sensitivity in healthy individuals: The influence of emotional traits and resilience

Chronic pain is often secondary to medical conditions such as cancer or diabetes or surgery (ICD-11). One of the major puzzles in the field is why some people with seemingly identical conditions do not suffer from pain. Psychosocial predictors determine the pain severity. The aim of this study was to investigate factorial structure of predictor variables in a population without the confounder of coexisting chronic pain.This study is a follow-up of the studies conducted with the BioPain subproject of the IMI-PainCare project. Here we analyzed data collected in 6 different countries.During a screening session 145 healthy subjects responded to six validated patient reported outcome measures (PROMs), 115 subjects came back to the laboratories 2 weeks later for a visit session and were subjected to high frequency stimulation, a human model of pain. Numerical rate score of pain was collected after one stimulation.Factor analysis of screening session PROMs suggests two latent variables. The first factor is the combination of anxiety, depression and catastrophizing, we called it Negative Emotional Trait (NEG). The second factor is a combination of self-efficacy and general-health. We called it Healthy Resilience (HR).Structural Equation Models shows that both factors influence pain sensitivity within the normal population. These findings suggest two strategies for prevention of chronic pain in at-risk population.