ABSTRACT
Pain simply reflected the extent to which noxious stimulation impinges on the body’s pain receptors. Conversely, patients with little tissue damage who complained of severe pain were regarded as ‘making a fuss’. The relationship between pain and injury, i.e., between perception and pain receptor stimulation, is far from invariate. The most common form of pain is tension headache, which ranges in severity from moderate to excruciating, yet there is no injury, no organic explanation for the pain. The power of suggestion and the efficacy of placebos in moderating pain attest further to the role of psychological factors. The important role that psychological factors play in pain perception immediately raises the possibility that psychological techniques may be applied to its amelioration. A host of psychological factors influence the transmission process and affect pain perception. Thus, if a patient with substantial injury complained little of pain, he or she was regarded as ‘being brave’.
