Psychosocial factors and their influence on the experience of pain

Abstract

Over the past 20 years, our understanding of social factors on pain experience has increased. Edwards et al. observed that the presence of a friend resulted in an increased pain threshold and tolerance to experimentally induced pain (cold pressor test and pressure algometry). Having a male friend present had the most prominent effect on male participants’ reporting of pain. However, the effects of psychosocial traits known to effect pain experience (eg, catastrophising) were not considered.