Pain tolerance as a predictor of outcome following multidisciplinary treatment for chronic pain: differential effects as a function of sex.

Sex-related differences in the experience of clinical and experimental pain have been widely reported. Females are at elevated risk for developing several chronic pain conditions and women demonstrate greater sensitivity to noxious stimulation in the laboratory. However, relationships between responses to experimental noxious stimuli and the experience of clinical pain have not been well characterized.

Spousal responses are differentially associated with clinical variables in women and men with chronic pain.

Objectives: Spousal responses have been related to clinical variables in patients with chronic pain. For example, solicitous responses from spouses have been associated with greater levels of pain and disability among patients with chronic pain. However, few investigators have determined whether spousal solicitousness produces different effects in women versus men with chronic pain.

Sex differences and incentive effects on perceptual and cardiovascular responses to cold pressor pain.

Objective: Sex differences in pain perception have been widely reported, with women typically displaying greater pain sensitivity than men, but the mechanisms underlying these differences remain unclear. One possible explanation suggests that men are more motivated to tolerate and suppress expressions of pain because of the masculine sex role, whereas the feminine sex role encourages pain expression and produces lower motivation to tolerate pain among women.

Methods: To examine the influence of motivation on perceptual and cardiovascular responses to pain among women and men, different levels of monetary incentive (high vs.

Clinical characteristics of chronic back pain as a function of gender and oral opioid use.

Study Design: A cross-sectional analysis of data derived from patients with chronic spinal pain undergoing evaluation at a multidisciplinary pain treatment center was conducted.

Objective: To determine whether pain severity, psychological status, and physical disability differed as a function of gender and opioid use, and whether the clinical correlates of opioid use differed in women and men with chronic back pain.

Summary Of Background Data: Gender differences in the experience of pain have been widely reported.