ArticleDrug and alcohol dependence2022
Emotional distress and pain catastrophizing predict cue-elicited opioid craving among chronic pain patients on long-term opioid therapy.
Article in Drug and alcohol dependence, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 18 citations in OpenAlex.
- Gender differences in the impact of psychological distress on methamphetamine use disorder outcomes and treatment effect.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2026Pooled it
- Opioid Craving in Chronic Pain Management: A Structural Equation Model of Veterans in Pain Rehabilitation.Military medicine · 2026Observational
- Prediction of opioid use disorder among patients with chronic non-cancer pain receiving long-term opioid therapy.Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.) · 2026Article
- Illness perception, family resilience, and emotional distress among hospitalized older adults with multimorbidity in Xinjiang, China: a latent profile and mediation analysis.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Craving for opioid and cannabis use among adults with chronic pain: Insights from a 30-day ecological momentary assessment study.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2025Article
- Identifying patterns of pain, depression, anxiety, interpersonal trauma exposure, and nonmedical prescription opioid use: Latent class analysis among patients with chronic pain.Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.) · 2024Article
- Alcohol consumption and opioid craving among chronic pain patients prescribed long-term opioid therapy.Addictive behaviors · 2024Article
- Psilocybin for Opioid Use Disorder in Two Adults Stabilized on Buprenorphine: A Technical Report on Study Modifications and Preliminary Findings.Psychedelic medicine (New Rochelle, N.Y.) · 2023Article
- Indirect Effects of Negative Mood on Opioid Misuse and Dependence via Anxiety Sensitivity Subfacets: Evidence from Adults Reporting Chronic Pain.Substance use & misuse · 2023Article
- Learning from addiction: Craving of prescription opioids in chronic pain sufferers.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2022Review
- Article
- Pain Catastrophizing and Substance Misuse: A Scoping Review of the Literature.Harvard review of psychiatryArticle
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundIndividuals who use illicit substances exhibit cue-elicited craving and autonomic cue-reactivity when exposed to cues associated with past drug use. However, little is known about this phenomenon among chronic pain patients on long-term opioid therapy (LTOT). Negative cognitive-emotional reactivity in general (e.g., distress) and cognitive-emotional reactivity specific to pain (e.g., pain catastrophizing) might drive cue-reactivity independent of pain severity. Here we examined emotional distress and pain catastrophizing as predictors of cue-reactivity among a sample of chronic pain patients receiving LTOT. We also tested whether associations between distress, catastrophizing, and cue-reactivity differed as a function of opioid misuse status. MATERIALS AND
methodsPatients receiving LTOT (N = 243) were classified as exhibiting aberrant behavior consistent with opioid misuse (MISUSE+, n = 145) or as using opioids as prescribed (MISUSE-, n = 97). Participants completed assessments of pain catastrophizing and emotional distress and then participated in an opioid cue-reactivity task one week later. Cue-elicited opioid craving and autonomic cue-reactivity were measured with craving ratings and high-frequency heart rate variability (HRV), respectively.
resultsDistress and catastrophizing predicted cue-elicited craving and HRV, whereas pain severity did not. Misuser status moderated the relationship between emotional distress and self-reported craving, such that higher levels of distress predicted craving among the MISUSE+ group, but not among the MISUSE- group. No moderating effects were found for catastrophizing.
conclusionsFindings suggest that although opioids are prescribed for analgesia, the exacerbating influence of negative cognitive-emotional reactivity, both in general and specific to pain, on cue-elicited opioid craving extends beyond the effects of pain severity alone.
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