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Interoceptive Fear And Pain Anxiety In Non-Cardiac Chest Pain: Is Fear Associated With Reduced Physical Activity?, Jennifer Marie Craft

Dissertations

Non-cardiac chest pain (NCCP) describes angina-like pain suffered by patients who lack a cardiac diagnosis (Fleet & Beitman, 1997). Despite a benign diagnosis, some NCCP patients continue to experience persistent pain, cardiac worry, impaired quality of life (Eifert, Hodson, Tracey, Seville, & Gunawardane, 1996), elevated rates of psychiatric disorders (Bass & Wade, 1984; White, et al., 2008), and negative health consequences (Eslick & Talley, 2008). Consistent with theory, research indicates that NCCP patients differentially fear cardiac sensations (Aikens, Zvolensky, & Eifert, 2001; White, Craft, & Gervino, 2010). It may be that NCCP patients avoid physical activity, which elicits feared cardiorespiratory …