Background & Aims

Social exclusion is one of the most detrimental threats to the need for social belonging, and it happens when people are intentionally put aside both physically (social isolation) or psychologically (being ignored or feeling unwanted). It has been considered a form of social pain that, as with chronic physical pain, may contribute to the development and persistence of mood disorders. Effects of social exclusion have not been studied on people with chronic pain conditions.
Aim: to test the effects of social exclusion on chronic pain patients (CP), in view of mood alteration and social functioning

Methods

34 CP patients and 29 healthy controls (HC) were enrolled to play Cyberball, a paradigm measuring the effects of social exclusion by manipulating the number of “virtual” ball tosses. Two conditions were used: “Inclusion condition” in which participants receive an equal number of tosses and the “Exclusion condition”, in which participants receive very few tosses. CP and HP were divided on the basis of the occurrence of mood alterations. Measures of anxiety, depression, social well-being (loneliness and social network size), and pain intensity perception (NRS) were assessed. Measures of social connection (Other in Self scale, OIS) and Cyberball-related measures were also collected.

Results

The repeated measures ANOVA revealed significant main effects of Cyberball conditions for all measures (p<0.001), but no between-group differences. A significant group*mood*Cyberball condition interaction for the OIS scale (p=0.031) was found. Post-hoc analysis showed that only CP with altered mood had similar OIS score in IC and EC. Correlation analysis revealed that only in CP, the lower social connection, the higher the degree of loneliness, net of mood measures (p<0.05).

Conclusions

Our study showed similar behavioral responses for CP patients and HC when involved in a social exclusion paradigm. But, when focusing on the occurrence of mood disorder, only altered CP patients did not change their perception of closeness with others according to the experimental conditions inducing social inclusion or exclusion. This may be related to feelings of loneliness, which affect the way CP patients feel connected with others. Mood disorder and chronic pain may reduce the emotional valence of being connected to others, thereby affecting social functioning.

References

– Williams KD, Cheung CK, Choi W. Cyberostracism: effects of being ignored over the Internet. Journal of personality and social psychology. 2000;79(5):748-762.

– Williams KD, Jarvis B. Cyberball: a program for use in research on interpersonal ostracism and acceptance. Behav Res Methods. Feb 2006;38(1):174-80.

– Cacioppo S, Capitanio JP, Cacioppo JT. Toward a neurology of loneliness. Psychological Bulletin. 2014;140(6):1464-1504. doi:10.1037/a0037618

– Reinhard MA, Dewald-Kaufmann J, Wüstenberg T, et al. The vicious circle of social exclusion and psychopathology: a systematic review of experimental ostracism research in psychiatric disorders. European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience. 2019:10.1007/s00406-019-01074-1. doi:10.1007/s00406-019-01074-1

– Nanavaty N, Walsh K, Boring B, Ganesan A, Carter-Sowell A, Mathur V. Acute Ostracism-Related Pain Sensitization in the Context of Accumulated Lifetime Experiences of Ostracism. The Journal of Pain. 2023

Presenting Author

Alessandra Telesca

Poster Authors

Alessandra Telesca

PhD candidate

IRCCS Foundation “Carlo Besta " Neurological Institute

Lead Author

Alessia Ferrario

Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Neurologico Carlo Besta, Milano

Lead Author

Elisabetta Soldini

Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Neurologico Carlo Besta, Milano

Lead Author

Monica Consonni

Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Neurologico Carlo Besta, Milano

Lead Author

Giuseppe Lauria Pinter

Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Neurologico Carlo Besta, Milano; Medical Biotechnology and Translational M

Lead Author

Topics

  • Lifestyle Issues: Sleep/Diet/Exercise/Social Interactions