Psychological factors affecting pain tolerance

Abstract

The present study was designed to investigate some of the cognitive functions which may aid an individual in coping with physical pain. Four instructional tapes— relaxation, “anxiety”, cogitive rehearsal, and control—were tested for their ability to increase pain tolerance in a laboratory situation. Eigthy student nurses received one of four training procedures prior to the presentation of two pain stimulators. Pain tolerance was measured by the radiant heat method and the pressure algometer method. Half of the subjects in each group were tested by a male experimenter and the other half were tested by a female experimenter. The results showed that relaxation, “anxiety”, and cognitive rehearsal each was effective in increasing the subject's pain tolerance scores. Relaxation was the most effective method. With the male experimenter, relaxation, “anxiety” and cognitive rehearsal were all significantly better than the control group. With the female experimenter, only the relaxation group showed greater pain tolerance score than the control group. Experimental clinical implications of these results were discussed and suggestions for further research presented.