Anxiety, Pain Experience, and Pain Report: A Signal-Detection Study

Abstract

The effect of experimentally induced anxiety on pain perception was examined using a signal detection discrimination experiment. The experimental condition consisted in unsignalled application of very painful stimuli which substantially raised state anxiety. The discrimination task included the total range of painful stimuli. The results indicated a range-specific effect of anxiety on pain, particularly on increased sensitivity in the upper range of intensities. The importance of testing the effect of anxiety over the whole range of intensities is stressed. That prior work considered only one intensity level may be the main reason why previous signal detection studies about pain and anxiety showed contradictory results.