Alexithymia is not related to tolerance for cold pressor pain.
To test the hypothesis that higher scores on alexithymia are associated with reduced tolerance for cold pressor pain, 116 college undergraduates completed the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 of Bagby, Parker and Taylor and engaged in the cold pressor test. Their alexithymia scores were not associated with tolerance for cold pressor pain, suggesting that individuals scoring high on alexithymia do not show a general hypersensitivity to a cold stimulus.
Jackson
Todd
T
Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Superior, 54880-2898, USA. tjackson@facstaff.uwsuper.edu
Nagasaka
Takeo
T
Fritch
April
A
Gunderson
Jennifer
J
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000523:psychology*; D003080:Cold Temperature; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008297:Male; D017288:Pain Threshold; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results