Tactual sensitivity of chronic pain patients to non-painful stimuli

Abstract

Chronic pain research tends to focus on responses to thresholds, tolerance and discrimination involving painful stimuli. This investigation, however, examines responses of individuals with chronic pain to non-painful stimuli. Two-point thresholds were obtained from 19 chronic pain patients and 17 pain-free individuals. The chronic pain patients had a significantly higher two-point threshold, 40.3 mm (S.D., 15.0 mm) than that of the control group, which had a two-point threshold of 30.8 mm (S.D., 7.4 mm). The results indicate that chronic pain decreases tactual sensitivity to non-painful stimuli.