MEASUREMENTS RELATED TO PAIN IN NEUROCIRCULATORY ASTHENIA, ANXIETY NEUROSIS, OR EFFORT SYNDROME: LEVELS OF HEAT STIMULUS PERCEIVED AS PAINFUL AND PRODUCING WINCE AND WITHDRAWAL REACTIONS 1

Open Access
Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Measurements were made of levels at which heat stimulus was first perceived as painful and at which heat stimulus produced wince and withdrawal reactions in 94 neurocirculatory asthenia (63 chronic and 31 acute) patients, 44 healthy control subjects and 17 convalescent controls. The apparatus employed was the Hardy-Wolff heat radiation apparatus. The conclusions were as follows: Patients with neurocirculatory asthenia (N.C.A.) perceive the heat stimulus as painful at the same level as do the control subjects. Patients with N.C.A. wince at a lower level of stimulus than do the controls. This is also true for the levels at which they pull away from the apparatus, a higher proportion of patients withdrawing at each level and at lower levels as compared with the controls. Patients with chronic N.C.A. react (wince, pull away) at lower levels than do patients with acute N.C.A. The degree of consistency of the levels at which each stimulus is perceived as painful, and at which wincing occurs, was no different in patients and controls during a given test. Perception levels do not differ significantly from test I to test II. Wince levels tend to be slightly higher in test II; this is significantly so in both groups of N.C.A. patients. Similar results were obtained in perception level, whether subject is instructed to look for jabbing sensation or is given no instruction and volunteers a description of this endpoint. There is no change in consistency in pain or wince level from test I to test II. The subjects report the stimulus as a jabbing, piercing, hurting sensation and agree that it is painful.

This publication has 2 references indexed in Scilit: