Large-Scale Online stimulus Norming and Surveys about Perceptions in Healthcare

National Center For Complementary & Integrative Health

Investigators

Linked publications, trials & patents

Abstract

Pain can be modulated by interpersonal processes that support the patient-provider relationship, and contextual factors related to the treatment environment. For example, placebo effects reflect the positive influence of social contexts on pain relief, whereas health disparities in pain are subject to stereotypes and inequities in pain assessment and its treatment. In this project, we investigate large-scale norms and beliefs about healthcare in America, and how perceptions of people and other visual cues in the treatment environment influence expectations about pain during treatment and about the pain other people feel. This project uses online survey methodologies to measure large scale normed beliefs and expectations from a geographically, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse population of Americans. The purpose of this project is to investigate healthcare beliefs that may enhance or diminish pain in the clinic, which can be used to design studies in the laboratory to test if manipulating these beliefs can be advantageous for pain outcomes. In the past year, we did not publish any papers that utilized data from the protocol. We completed collaborative work with Dr. Joyce Chung (OD, formerly NIMH) that measures the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on mental and physical health. We published one paper on the influence of psychiatric vulnerability and social isolation on mental health (Atlas et al., 2025, Nature Mental Health), and a second paper on using chatGPT for automated assessment of affect in language (Losso-Ventura, 2024, JMIR Mental Health). We also submitted a manuscript on the relationship between pain and mental health during the pandemic (Akintola et al., Submitted).