Psychology Facts

▼ Pain / Pain Tolerance ▼

            

》  Pain tolerance is the amount of pain that a person can withstand before breaking down emotionally and/or physically.

》  The Brain Doesn't Feel Pain. When you get hurt or feel a hot sensation your body releases chemicals that send pain signals up through the spinal cord to receptors in the brain. The brain then sends the pain message back down to the part of the body that hurts.

》  A person with a high pain tolerance can deal with more pain than a person with an average or low pain tolerance.

》   How and why a person experiences pain can vary greatly, and the nature of how humans feel pain is complex. A number of factors influence an individuals pain tolerance levels such as:

Expectation

Age

Genes

Experience of pain

Stress

Mental health issues

Sex

Chronic illnesses

》  A study published in the December 2009 issue of Neuroscience Letters showed that right-handed study participants could tolerate more pain in their right hands than in their left hands.

》  This study also showed that women were more sensitive to pain than men; but women and men were equal in their ability tolerate pain intensity.

》  Women actually do experience more pain than men over their lifetimes because of conditions and experiences such as menstruation, childbirth, and migraine headaches. Studies also show that women may experience pain differently — often more intensely — than men do.

》 An eye-catching 2009 study published in the Journal of the American Dental Association found that redheads are more likely to fear the dentist. Why? A specific genetic variant that results in their fire-hued hair also makes them resistant to certain anesthetics, so they were more likely to have had painful dental experiences in the past.

》  Pain tolerance is often difficult to accurately measure. Experts have come up with several methods to measure it, though the methods reliability remains controversial. Here are some methods to test your pain tolerance:

    
Cold pressor method -

The cold pressor test is one of the more popular ways to measure pain tolerance. It involves submerging your hand into a bucket of ice-cold water. Youll tell whoever is administering the test when you start to feel pain. Your pain threshold is determined by the amount of time between the start of the test and your first report of pain.

Once the pain becomes unbearable, you can remove your hand. The time between the test start and when your remove your hand is considered your pain tolerance.

     Pain intensity scales -

Doctors also use written questionnaires or scales to help them understand someones pain level and how well certain pain treatments are working. They can also be used as an indicator of how a persons pain tolerance changes over time.

》  Common questionnaires used to determine pain tolerance include -

Oswestry Disability Index questionnaire

Wong-Baker FACES pain rating scale

visual analog scale

McGill Pain Questionnaire

Brief Pain Inventory questionnaire

》  Dolorimeter an instrument called a dolorimeter to assess pain threshold and pain tolerance. There are several types of instruments, depending on the type of stimulus it uses. Most dolorimeters apply heat, pressure, or electrical stimulation to parts of your body while you report your pain level.

》  A CIA handbook taught torture methods, and stressed the importance of psychological over physical torture. The threat of inflicting pain triggered fears more damaging than the pain itself, because people often underestimated their capacity to withstand pain.

》  Studies show that women rate their pain higher during the premenstrual and menstrual phases of their cycle than during other times of the month. It seems that when estrogen levels are high, pain sensitivity is low, and when estrogen levels are low, pain sensitivity is high, but the reasons why aren't fully understood,

》Swearing can increase pain tolerance and reduce the fear of being in pain.