In <5b86el$a5c at eldborg.rhi.hi.is> mdr at rhi.hi.is (Margret Dora
Ragnarsdottir) writes:
>>I'm a student of psychology and I am starting research for my
ba-thesis. The
>research concernes the influence of pain on performance in
neuropsychological
>tests. The study of whiplash has been a hot topic lately for patients
>sufferin whiplash have shown a below average perfomance on
neuropsyhcological
>tests. The debate has been wheter this is because of braindamage or
some
>other cause. I study the hypothesis that pain might be the cause. My
only
>problem is that there seems to be a limited choice of references. Any
bright
>ideas where to search? Anyone been doing reference hunting in this
field?
>>With warm greetings from Iceland
>Margret Dora
>Pain can impair performance, obviously; but some disorders may involve
processes which concurrently increase pain AND decrease cognitive
efficiency, i.e. in parallel, not one via the other.
I am looking at possible explanations of similar complaints after mild
head injury, whiplash, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, Lyme
disease, etc., involving neuroimmune reactions. Some are well studied
in ACUTE trauma, but nearly completely neglected in studies of CHRONIC
sequelae (cf. my abstract, Society for Neuroscience, Nov. '96).
(#743.1).
F. Frank LeFever, Ph.D.
New York Neuropsychology Group