title: Pain perception and nonsuicidal self-injury: a laboratory investigation.
abstract: People who engage in self-injurious behaviors such as cutting and burning may have altered pain perception. Using a community sample, we examined group differences in pain threshold and pain endurance between participants who self-injured and control participants who were exposed to pressure pain applied to the finger. Participants who self-injured had higher pain thresholds (time to report pain) and endured pain for longer than control participants. Among participants who self-injured, those with longer histories of self-injury had higher pain thresholds. Duration of self-injury was unrelated to pain endurance. Instead, greater pain endurance was predicted by higher levels of introversion and neuroticism and by more negative beliefs about one's self-worth. A highly self-critical cognitive style was the strongest predictor of prolonged pain endurance. People who self-injure may regard suffering and pain as something that they deserve. Our findings also have implications for understanding factors that might be involved in the development and maintenance of self-injury.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. jmh@wjh.harvard.edu
authors.forename: Jill M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Hooley
authors.forename: Doreen T
authors.initials: DT
authors.lastname: Ho
authors.forename: Joshua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Slater
authors.forename: Amanda
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lockshin
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D010147:Pain Measurement; D058748:Pain Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D017288:Pain Threshold / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology*; D012649:Self Concept; D016728:Self-Injurious Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult