2872 – Psychosemantic Study of Interoception Experience and Pain Perception in Patients with Mitral Valve Prolapse

Abstract

A considerable dissonance between the numerous subjective complaints of mitral valve prolapse (MVP) patients and the dramatic scarcity of data from objective medical studies is the important problem of modern medicine and psychology.

Objectives:

To study the features of interoception experience and pain perception in MVP patients.

Methods:

The psychosemantic technique «Classification of sensations» was used. Testees had only 80 Russian words to describe their interoception experience and pain perception. They had to select words which can be used for the description of interoception experience; then it was necessary to choose consistently familiar sensations, the painful sensations, often felt sensations, and, at last, words which are suitable for the description «sensations in heart».

We examined 134 MVP patients and 73 healthy subjects.

Results:

MVP patients reliably distinguish (p< 0.05) from healthy individuals by fairly large amount of interoception vocabularies (see Table 1).

[Table 1.Interoception vocabularies (descriptors)]

Types of vocabularies	MVP	Healthy subjects
General vocabulary of sensations	59.2 ± 1.66*	46.7 ± 1.42
Familiar sensations	45.36 ± 2.05*	33.99 ± 2.81
Painful sensations	11.04 ± 1.53*	7.74 ± 1.61
Often felt sensations	4.17 ± 1.98*	1.79 ± 0.23
«Sensations in heart»	10.12 ± 1.22*	4.88 ± 1.07

Conclusions:

Qualitative analysis of the results showed that the expansion of interoception vocabularies of MVP patients is due to inclusion of the words that describe the mental states and emotions.

Received results prove a role of psychological factors in an etiology of pain syndromes in MVP patients.