SURVEY OF MODERATING ROLE OF POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE AFFECTIONS ON THE RELATION- SHIP BETWEEN ALEXITHYMIA AND EXPERIENCE OF PAIN IN CHRONIC PAIN PATIENTS

Abstract To investigate the moderating role of positive and negative affects on the relationship between alexithymia and experience of pain in a sample of chronic pain patients, 100 chronic musculoskeletal pain patients (67 women, 33 men) participated in this research. All participants completed the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (FTAS-20), the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), and Visual Analogue Scale for Pain Severity (VAS). Positive and negative affects moderated the relationship between alexithymia and experience of pain in opposite directions. Positive affects decreased the effect of alexithymia on experience of pain, while negative affects increased the effect of alexithymia on experience of pain. © 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Keywords: Emotion; Emotion regulation; Alexithymia; Pain 1. Introduction According to the definition of International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP, 1986), pain is an unpleasant sensational or emotional experience that is related to the actual or potential injury, and it has two dimensions: sensational aspect and emotional aspect. Sensational aspect of pain refers to the intensity of pain and emotional aspect refers to the amount of unhappiness that a person experiences. Inability to process cognition and to regulate emotions is called alexithymia. Based on previous studies, alexithymia is one of the psychological factors affecting chronic pain. Alexithymia together with pain is found in patients with fibromyalgia syndrome (Huber & Suman & Biasi & Carli, 2009) lower back pain (Mehling, & Krause, 2007) and cancer pain (Porcelli & Tulipani & Maiello & Cilenti & Todarello, 2007