Pain tolerance in hypnotic analgesic and imagination states.

This study was designed to: (a) investigate the effectiveness of hypnotically suggested analgesia and pleasant imagery conditions in modifying the tolerance of an increasingly intense electrical stimulus, (6) determine the feasibility of increasing analgesic effects by a combination of these conditions (analgesia plus pleasant imagery), (c) explore the hypothesis that 6s with highest levels of state anxiety would show the largest changes in tolerance. Thirty-six female students served as 5s. Simulator and hypnosis 5s were tested for pain tolerance under three conditions. Simulators had no significant tolerance increases. For hypnosis 5s, the analgesia and the analgesia plus pleasant imagery conditions were both effective in modifying tolerance. The analgesia condition produced the highest tolerance increases. The pleasant imagery condition did not produce a significant group tolerance increase. However, an analysis of imagery content suggested that images which were not body oriented did significantly modify tolerance levels. State anxiety was unrelated to tolerance, but there was a consistent negative correlation between trait anxietj' and all tolerance changes for simulator 5s.