Effect of Suggestion upon Experimental Pain Response Parameters

Abstract

The differential effects of permissive and non-permissive instructions upon pain threshold and pain tolerance were studied in 43 healthy human Ss, using cutaneous electrical stimulation. Non-permissive instructions resulted in very significant increases in both pain tolerance and pain sensitivity range, but no significant changes were observed for both pain threshold and detection threshold. Therefore, Gelfand's hypothesis, stating that pain threshold and pain tolerance have differential loadings of physiological and psychological components, was supported. It was also found that the left or non-dominant hand was consistently more sensitive to pain than the right hand. This result is consistent with Wolff's and Jarvik's suggestion that lateral dominance is important in pain perception.