The Effects of Three Instructional Treatments on Pain Magnitude and Pain Tolerance: Implications for Theories of Hypnotic Analgesia

Abstract

Between baseline and posttesting on the cold pressor test, subjects were assigned to four treatments: a) hypnotic analgesia, b) brief instructions to “Do whatever you can to reduce pain,” c) stress innoculation, and c) no instruction control. Participants in the three instructional treatments showed significantly greater baseline to posttest decrements in pain magnitude and significantly greater increments in pain tolerance than controls. However, the instructional treatments did not differ significantly from one another in these regards. Pretested hypnotic susceptibility correlated significantly with degree of pain reduction in the hypnotic analgesia treatment but not in the “Do whatever” or stress innoculation treatments. Theoretical implications are discussed.