Post-traumatic stress, pain and anxiety in adult burn victims

This article describes the relationship between post-traumatic morbidity anxious anticipation of pain and pain perception in 33 admit burn patients. Burn patients were assessed, on average, 7 days after admission to the hospital. Five times a day nurses asked the patients to provide pain ratings. The more patients suffered from post-traumatic stress, the more their anxiety state was elevated. The association between post-traumatic stress and pain perception was, controlling for the effects of anxious anticipation, spurious. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd for ISBI. All rights reserved.