The Effects of Posttraumatic Stress and Trauma-Focused Disclosure on Experimental Pain Sensitivity Among Trauma-Exposed Women

Previous studies evaluating the impact of trauma history and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on pain sensitivity have yielded inconsistent findings. The presence of trauma-related negative affective states may account for these discrepancies. The current study aimed to evaluate the effect of PTSD and trauma-related negative affect on sensory, affective, physiological, and neuroendocrine responses to an experimental pain task. Trauma-exposed adult women (N = 87) with or without probable PTSD underwent an emotional disclosure paradigm during which they wrote about a traumatic event or a neutral topic. Participants then completed a pain induction procedure. Sensory and affective reports of pain, as well as physiological and neuroendocrine reactivity, were assessed. Compared to women without PTSD, those with PTSD demonstrated decreased sensory pain responses, η_p² =.11, including increased time to pain detection (i.e., threshold) and ability to withstand the pain stimuli (i.e., tolerance) after accounting for relevant covariates. Women with PTSD also demonstrated increased cortisol reactivity following the pain stimulus, η_p² =.06. The main and interactive effects of PTSD group and writing condition did not significantly predict alterations in affective reports of pain or heart rate reactivity. The results suggest that PTSD symptoms may contribute to alterations in pain sensitivity in trauma-exposed women, but this association is complex and requires further exploration.