Evidence map›Paper›PMID 27669431›Full record

ArticlePsychosomatic medicine

The Role of Chronic Psychosocial Stress in Explaining Racial Differences in Stress Reactivity and Pain Sensitivity.

Jennifer L Gordon, Jacqueline Johnson, Samantha Nau, Beth Mechlin, Susan S Girdler

Open access · greenAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Psychosomatic medicine. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
13citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
2.4field-weighted citation impact, top 11% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

13 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 22 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Article
  3. Review
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Race, Family Conflict and Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors among 9-10-Year-Old American Children.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021
    Article
  7. Article
  8. Observational
  9. Observational
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Jennifer L GordonFrom the Department of Psychiatry (Gordon, Johnson, Nau, Girdler), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Department of Psychology (Mechlin), Earlham College, Richmond, Indiana.
Jacqueline Johnson
Samantha Nau
Beth Mechlin
Susan S Girdler
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill · US

Funding

Stress Responses, Psychosocial Stress and Pain Perception in African AmericansR01DA013705 · NIDA · UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL · PI GIRDLER, SUSAN S. · 2001 to 2010
$2.2M
Ethnicity and Pain: Psychosocial Stress and Stress ResponsesF31DA023009 · NIDA · UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL · PI MECHLIN, M BETH · 2007 to 2008
$52k
NIDA NIH HHS F31 DA023009NIDA NIH HHS R01 DA013705
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectiveTo examine the role of psychosocial factors in mediating the relationship between African American (AA) race and both increased pain sensitivity and blunted stress reactivity.

methodsParticipants included 133 AA and non-Hispanic white (nHW) individuals (mean [SD] age, 37 [9]) matched for age, sex, and socioeconomic status. Participants underwent mental stress testing (Trier Social Stress Test) while cardiovascular, hemodynamic, and neuroendocrine reactivity were measured. Participants completed questionnaires assessing potential sources of psychosocial stress and were tested for pain responses to cold pain and the temporal summation of heat pulses. Mediation analyses were used to determine the extent to which exposure to psychosocial stress accounted for the observed racial differences in stress reactivity and pain.

resultsChronic stress exposure and reactivity to mental stress was largely similar among AAs and nHWs; however, AAs exhibited heightened pain to both cold (p = .012) and heat (p = .004). Racial differences in the relationship between stress reactivity and pain were also observed: while greater stress reactivity was associated with decreased pain among nHWs, reactivity was either unrelated to or even positively associated with pain among AAs (e.g., r = -.21 among nHWs and r = .41 among AAs for stroke volume reactivity and cold pressor intensity). Adjusting for minor racial differences in chronic psychosocial stress did not change these findings.

conclusionsAccounting for psychosocial factors eliminated racial differences in stress reactivity but not racial differences in sensitivity to experimental pain tasks. Increased exposure to chronic stress may not explain AAs' increased pain sensitivity in laboratory settings.

Indexed as

AdultBlack or African AmericanFemaleHumansMaleMiddle AgedPain ThresholdStress, PsychologicalWhite People

Identifiers

PMID27669431
PMCPMC5285323
OpenAlexW2521188660

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceTDM
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.