The Effect of Audio-Analgesia on Pain Threshold and Pain Tolerance

¹ Departments of Dental Materials and Dental Anatomy, University of Texas Dental Branch, and University of Houston, Houston, Texas

The purpose of this experiment was to study the effect of audio-analgesia on pain threshold and pain tolerance while varying (a) control of the volume of white noise, and (b) suggestion. Freshman dental students were used as subjects, and their susceptibility to suggestion was measured by the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Test. They were then randomly assigned to either an implicit or an explicit suggestion group. Within each of these respective groups, some were allowed control over the volume of white noise, followed by no control of the volume, and vice versa in a counterbalanced design. The maxillary right central incisor of each subject was electrically stimulated and readings were noted in terms of milliamperes.

The results indicated that the two groups did not differ in their initial susceptibility to suggestion. Furthermore, there were no differences between the first and second base level readings; neither was there any difference in the sequence of presenting the experimental conditions. The main effect of audio-analgesia was found to be significant for both pain threshold and pain tolerance. The significant interaction effect was between analgesia and control over the volume of the white noise. Not significant was the effect of suggestion.

The findings were interpreted in terms of the combined effect of the noise and its control to reduce anxiety. Reduction of anxiety in a painful situation affects the reaction component of pain. Thus, perceived pain in a situation where concern over the pain has been reduced results in a situation where pain is well tolerated. The failure of the explicit suggestions was discussed in terms of the impersonal manner in which they were given. It is likely that pain threshold and pain tolerance are affected by a number of other situational and interpersonal variables such as the type of the subject (highly suggestible), the nature of the pain experience (experimental versus pathologic), the personality and prestige of the experimenter, and his relationship to the subjects (personal versus impersonal). Pain threshold and pain tolerance as a function of factors such as these deserve further exploration.

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