Table 6.
Self-reported pain and stress during the experiment and significant differences between psychophysiological response patterns
| Phase | Low BP (N = 48) | High BP (N = 39) | High EMG (N = 22) | High SCL (N = 11) | Significant difference | |||||
| Mean | SD | Mean | SD | Mean | SD | Mean | SD | F | p | |
| Pain | ||||||||||
| Baseline | 3.36 | (2.46) | 3.73 | (2.53) | 1.00 | (2.05) | 5.17 | (3.19) | 7.46 | <0.001 |
| Relax 1 | 3.18 | (2.45) | 3.39 | (2.32) | 0.92 | (1.90) | 5.06 | (3.06) | 7.52 | <0.001 |
| Arithmetic | 4.02 | (2.86) | 4.61 | (2.56) | 0.95 | (1.93) | 6.11 | (3.06) | 11.02 | <0.001 |
| Relax 2 | 3.64 | (2.50) | 4.26 | (2.48) | 0.95 | (2.04) | 5.50 | (2.84) | 10.12 | <0.001 |
| Conflict | 3.88 | (2.51) | 4.69 | (2.67) | 0.92 | (2.02) | 6.06 | (3.00) | 12.12 | <0.001 |
| Relax 3 | 4.15 | (2.56) | 4.43 | (2.31) | 1.00 | (2.00) | 6.17 | (3.10) | 12.30 | <0.001 |
| Stress | ||||||||||
| Baseline | 2.40 | (1.18) | 2.31 | (0.95) | 1.58 | (0.96) | 3.11 | (1.96) | 4.06 | 0.009 |
| Relax 1 | 1.79 | (0.99) | 2.00 | (1.13) | 0.47 | (0.84) | 3.11 | (1.96) | 13.25 | <0.001 |
| Arithmetic | 4.40 | (2.32) | 4.84 | (1.84) | 3.00 | (1.20) | 5.94 | (2.21) | 5.52 | 0.001 |
| Relax 2 | 2.57 | (1.55) | 2.69 | (1.37) | 0.53 | (1.07) | 3.44 | (1.88) | 12.81 | <0.001 |
| Conflict | 5.25 | (1.94) | 6.08 | (2.09) | 3.84 | (1.77) | 6.56 | (2.24) | 6.41 | 0.001 |
| Relax 3 | 2.83 | (1.53) | 2.62 | (1.23) | 1.00 | (1.11) | 3.33 | (2.23) | 8.75 | <0.001 |
| Duration of pain | 8.35 | (10.61) | 7.16 | (6.80) | 1.33 | (3.24) | 5.33 | (2.54) | 3.38 | 0.022 |
BP, blood pressure; EMG, electromyographic activity FMS, fibromyalgia syndrome; HC, healthy controls; SCL, skin conductance level; SD, standard deviation.