Recalling pain experienced during a colonoscopy: Pain expectation and variability

Objectives. This study investigated the relationship between participants' expected levels of pain intensity before a colonoscopy, pain intensity experienced while they were undergoing this medical procedure (real‐time pain), and their retrospective evaluation of this experience. Design. Correlational design. Regression analyses were performed and mediational models were tested. Methods. Ninety patients who were about to undergo a colonoscopy were asked to report the pain intensity on a scale ranging from 0 (no pain) to 10 (extreme pain). They reported the expected intensity of pain before the examination, their real‐time intensity of pain every 60 s during the colonoscopy, and their global retrospective evaluation of the pain experienced when the procedure was over. Results. Results confirmed that, regardless of participants' gender, the variability of the real‐time pain distribution was a significant predictor of the accuracy of recall (i.e. the discrepancy between recalled pain and mean real‐time pain). Moreover, participants' pain expectations preceding the examination were a significant predictor of the accuracy of recall. It was further demonstrated that the effect of patients' expectations on the discrepancy was mediated by the real‐time pain variability. Conclusions. The results of the present study provide useful indications about what the target of interventions aimed at reducing the bias in pain recall should be.