Relative Factors of Pain in Healthy Adults

Abstract

[Purpose] The purpose of this study was to investigate how tolerance of pain related to sensory-discriminative factors as well as emotional factors in its clinical assessment scales. [Subjects] Thirty healthy subjects participated in this study. [Methods] We used a Neurometer device to measure the non-traumatic Pain Tolerance Threshold (PTT) and painless Current Perception Threshold (CPT). Transcutaneous sine-wave stimuli at frequencies of 2000, 250 and 5 Hz delivered by the Neurometer are thought to selectively activate Aβ, Aδ and C afferent fibers respectively. PTT is the maximum amount of the electrical stimulus that a patient can tolerate, and CPT is the minimum amount of the electrical stimulus that the patient can perceive. We used PTTs, CPTs, a Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) and the McGill Pain Questionnaire (MPQ) as measurement tools for pain tolerance. [Results] There were significant correlations between PTTs and the qualitative factors in each subclass of MPQ. There were no significant correlations between PTTs and VAS, or PTTs and CPTs, but there was a significant correlation between VAS and CPTs. [Conclusion] Our results suggest that tolerance of pain correlates with emotional aspects, and that we might need to realize the influence of the qualitative factors when we measure persistent strong pain. © 2009, The Society of Physical Therapy Science. All rights reserved.