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We studied whether there exist variations in pain responses between different intellectual and developmental disability (IDD) etiologies. Self-reports and facial expressions (Facial Action Coding System = FACS) were recorded during experimental pressure stimuli and compared among 31 individuals with IDD--13 with cerebral palsy (CP), nine with Down syndrome (DS), nine with unspecified origin (UIDD)--and among 15 typically developing controls (TDCs). The CP and DS groups had higher pain ratings and FACS scores compared to the UIDD and TDC groups, and steeper stimulus-response functions. The DS group exhibited the most diverse facial expressions. There were variations in the foci of facial expressions between groups. It appears that different IDD etiologies display distinct pain responses.

Although body awareness and pain perception are considered to be parts of the interoceptive system, the relationship between them is unclear. This study examines the association between body awareness and pain habituation, hypothesizing that this association is moderated by pain catastrophizing and mindfulness. Sixty subjects received a mildly aversive electrical stimulus for 60 s, during which they were requested to rate the amount of perceived pain. Complete habituation was indicated by abolition of pain sensation; partial habituation was indicated by a decrease in pain sensation. Individuals who demonstrated complete habituation had lower levels of pain catastrophizing and lower levels of mindfulness. As hypothesized, the association between body awareness and pain habituation was moderated by pain catastrophizing: Among low pain catastrophizers, the higher the body awareness, the stronger the tendency to exhibit complete habituation. Among high pain catastrophizers, the higher the body awareness, the greater the likelihood to present partial habituation., Author(s): Karni Ginzburg[sup.1] , Noga Tsur[sup.1] [sup.2] , Carmel Karmin[sup.3] , Tali Speizman[sup.3] , Ricki Tourgeman[sup.3] , Ruth Defrin[sup.3] [sup.4] Author Affiliations: (1) The Bob Shapell School of Social Work, [...]

Sensitivity to bodily signals is the tendency to be aware of bodily states and to identify subtle bodily reactions to internal and environmental conditions. Monitoring these signals is a top-down process, describing individuals' tendency to actively scan their bodies in order to detect cues for their physical condition. Two studies examined the relations between these constructs and their adaptivity among young adults. In Study 1, 180 young adults completed questionnaires assessing sensitivity, monitoring, and hypochondriac tendency. In Study 2, 205 students reported their levels of sensitivity, monitoring, pain catastrophizing, and trait anxiety. Although monitoring and sensitivity were correlated, when controlling for their shared variance, only monitoring was associated with high hypochondriac tendency and anxiety. In addition, the adaptivity of sensitivity to bodily signals was dependent on both level of monitoring of bodily signals and pain catastrophizing. That is, pain catastrophizing moderated the effect of sensitivity and monitoring on anxiety. These findings suggest that the adaptivity of sensitivity is determined by the mode of attention characterizing the individual engaged in this process. Keywords Body awareness * Sensitivity * Monitoring * Pain catastrophizing, Introduction Body awareness is defined as the extent of sensitivity and attentiveness to internal signals and sensations (Shields et al., 1989). Although these two components are often used interchangeably (Bekker [...]