Behavioral, physiological, and self-evaluative effects of anxiety on the self-control of pain.
Self-control training beats no training for pain, but high trait anxiety still blunts gains unless you add anxiety-reduction steps.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team ran a lab RCT with 60 college students. Half got self-control training for the cold-pressor task. Half got no training.
They measured how long each hand stayed in ice water, heart rate, and self-ratings. They also gave everyone an anxiety quiz.
What they found
Training doubled pain tolerance and cut heart rate. High-anxiety people still quit sooner and felt worse about themselves.
Low-anxiety people looked calm and stayed longer. Training helped, but anxiety still shaped the final result.
How this fits with other research
Schmitt (1986) first used covert conditioning for pain, but only showed case stories. Rojahn et al. (1994) now gives hard numbers with a control group.
Lord et al. (1997) later found that reinforcement history did not predict chronic pain behaviors. That seems to clash with our RCT, but C studied long-term pain patients and natural settings. We studied short lab pain and taught new skills.
Bhaumik et al. (2008) added emotion work to CBT and cut fatigue. Their success backs our hint: add anxiety tools when pain clients are highly anxious.
Why it matters
Screen every pain client for trait anxiety before you teach self-control. If scores are high, weave in relaxation or acceptance skills first. One extra five-minute breathing drill can save you weeks of slow progress.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
This study examined the impact of trait anxiety on self-control behavior using the cold pressor task. In addition to cold pressor tolerance, effects were measured in terms of physiological arousal and self-evaluations. Forty-six female subjects screened for high and low trait anxiety were given two trials of the cold pressor task, and between trials, they were given either self-control or non-self-control training. As expected, self-control training resulted in increased pain tolerance and decreased physiological arousal. Although anxiety did not influence behavioral tolerance, high trait anxious subjects receiving self-control training made more negative self-evaluations and had higher levels of physiological arousal. These results suggest that anxiety may disrupt the use of self-control strategies in coping with pain.
Behavior modification, 1994 · doi:10.1177/01454455940181006