The influence of anxiety and pain sensitivity on experimental pain in man.

A study was made of a number of factors that might be responsible for the unreliable results obtained in experimentally induced pain in man. In a randomised, double-blind, cross-over study on 32 healthy, male volunteers, the ischaemic pain test [14] and several psychological tests were performed. The influence of the following factors on the pain test results were examined: (a) ingestion of single, oral doses of 1000 mg aspirin (ASA) and placebo, (b) practice effect, (c) initial pain sensitivity, (d) anxiety, coping behaviour, attitude to the experiment and personality factors.