WCP 2025: Full Schedule

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10:15 CEST

LECTURE - Mentalization in Patients with Acute Myocardial Infarction

Thursday July 17, 2025 10:15 - 11:00 CEST

Lecture Hall 2004

Speakers

Maria de las Nieves Gatti

Thursday July 17, 2025 10:15 - 11:00 CEST
Lecture Hall 2004

Psychosomatic, Lecture-30+15

11:15 CEST

LECTURE - Genuine Unconscious Emotions Exaggerate Pain Experience: Evidence from Experimental Studies with Healthy Samples

Thursday July 17, 2025 11:15 - 12:00 CEST

Lecture Hall 2004

Background: To date, experimental evidence supporting that unconscious negative emotions might intensify pain experience is rare. Methods: In two laboratory studies^1,2 with healthy women (n=72) and healthy men (n=70) an adapted think/no-think paradigm (T/NT) with combinations of 72 neutral face images (=anchor stimuli) and 36 neutral or 36 negative IAPS pictures were applied. Within the T/NT recall, the anchor stimuli were identified, for which the paired IAPS images were effectively forgotten. This was followed by randomly presenting 20 neutral anchor stimuli, each of the NT-neutral and NT-negative conditions, in parallel with individual intermediate heat pain stimulation. The third study was conducted with healthy women (n=70) and the same T/NT. Participants rated the pleasantness/unpleasantness of the 40 NT neutral face images at baseline and after the T/NT. Specifically, they reported their emotional response ("self") while viewing the image, as well as the perceived emotion of the person in the image ("other"). Results: The two earlier studies showed a significantly higher pain unpleasantness for formerly negatively paired vs. formerly neutrally paired anchor stimuli, even when the paired images were forgotten. Within the third study, there were no significant differences in the “self” or “other” ratings over time. Moreover, additional Bayesian Analysis showed evidence for no difference in these affect ratings. Discussion: The studies reported here suggest that the mechanism of pain intensification due to the activation of unconscious emotional memories exists, whereby an anchor stimulus triggers an unconscious association with negative affect. Conclusions: The results underscore the necessity of emotion-focused psychotherapy (e.g., psychodynamic) in patients with chronic (primary) pain conditions.

[1] Frisch S et al. (2024). Unconscious activation of negative emotional memories increases pain unpleasantness. Psychosomatic Medicine, 86(7):580–90.
[2] Frisch S et al. (2023). Unconscious negative emotions influence pain experience: Experimental evidence and sex differences in healthy samples. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 169, 111264.

Speakers

Stephan Frisch

About the person:Stephan Frisch, MD completed his medical studies in Bonn, Ulm, and Boston (USA), followed by specialist training in neurology at BKH Günzburg. He then pursued further specialist training in psychiatry and psychodynamic psychotherapy at BKH Günzburg and Christophsbad... Read More →

Thursday July 17, 2025 11:15 - 12:00 CEST
Lecture Hall 2004

Psychosomatic, Lecture-30+15

14:00 CEST

LECTURE - The Central Role of Depression, Anxiety, and Interpersonal Sensitivity in Psychological Disorders: a Large Sample Bayesian Network Analysis

Thursday July 17, 2025 14:00 - 14:45 CEST

Lecture Hall 317

Speakers

Shoushi Wang

About the person:Shoushi Wang, based in Beijing, is currently a Master's student in Clinical Psychology at Beijing Normal University. She has been involved in a range of significant projects during her time as a student. From April 2022 to February 2024, she designed and implemented... Read More →

Thursday July 17, 2025 14:00 - 14:45 CEST
Lecture Hall 317

Psychosomatic, Lecture-30+15