[Adaptive modifications of cold pain. II. Communication: long-term experiments with 24-h-intervals (author's transl)]

Abstract

Ten healthy subjects were exposed to a single cold pain stimulus at one hand on each of 21 successive days. In order to follow up the subjective adaptation every other day an abbreviated version of the McGill-Pain-Questionnaire was issued. The initially wide spread protopathic irradiation of cold pain sensation was decreased by adaptation to a strictly localized perception related to the really exposed area. The number of the chosen affective-protopathic adjectives was significantly reduced, the number of sensory-epicrtic descriptions, however, remained constant. The overall evaluative estimation of pain intensity was also diminished. The course of objective adaptation parallels that of subjective adaptation. The relation between the evaluative intensity ratings and the affective-protopathic experience descriptions is discussed.