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Examining conditioned pain modulation in non-elite and elite rock climbers : the influence of pain coping strategies and cognitive appraisal

University of British Columbia

The physical demands of rock climbing combined with climber’s verbal reports suggest that this sport requires participants to cope with pain. Recent athlete pain studies have used Conditioned Pain Modulation (CPM), a measure of pain that quantifies the amount that one painful sensation downregulates other painful sensations. This research has focused on traditional-sport athletes such as runners and has neglected adventure sport athletes such as climbers. Furthermore, the influence of pain coping strategies and appraisals on CPM have not been clarified. This study examined how elite and novice climbers experience, cope with, and appraise pain by examining CPM in a laboratory test. In addition, coping and appraisals for the pain during the CPM test were compared to coping and appraisals of a recent painful climb to examine if the situations elicited similar responses. Elite climbers (n=27) demonstrated higher CPM (p<.01) and higher baseline pain tolerance (p<.05) than novice climbers (n=26). Novice climbers reported using higher distraction coping strategies than elite climbers in both the CPM test and during a recent painful climb (p<.05). Elite climbers reported more control over pain during a recent painful climb (p<.01). Despite group differences, distraction coping was not linearly correlated to CPM. Intraclass correlation analysis showed that most pain coping strategies and appraisals were moderately to highly correlated across the two conditions, suggesting similarities in how climbers appraised and coped with the pain during the CPM test and climbing. Results suggest that elite climbers have better pain tolerance than non-elite climbers. However, the role of coping and appraisals of pain was unclear. Future research should consider longitudinal studies to examine the factors that lead to an elite climber’s higher pain tolerance, as well as examining climbers of all skill levels to elucidate the link between the stress process and rock climbing.

Text

2018-08-21

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/66858

Kinesiology

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/