title: Emotional distress and pain tolerance in obsessive-compulsive disorder.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Physical pain can reduce emotional distress, perhaps especially the psychic pain of guilt. This implies that people who continually experience guilt may exhibit greater tolerance for pain relative to people who do not.
  
  
  METHODS
  To test this hypothesis, we administered a pressure algometer procedure to assess pain tolerance in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) plagued by moral obsessions (e.g., concerns about harming others, violating religious values), in patients with OCD with non-moral obsessions (e.g., regarding contamination and symmetry), and in healthy comparison subjects.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results indicated that the OCD groups did not differ in levels of guilt, emotional distress tolerance, or in pain endurance. However, when we collapsed across subtypes, OCD subjects endured pain significantly longer than did healthy subjects.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Limitations included small sample size and use of a sample with complex OCD symptoms that were, in some instances, difficult to categorize.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results suggest that individuals with severe OCD might be willing to endure physical pain as a distraction from emotional distress, an expression of negative self-worth, or as a means to gain control over some aspect of suffering.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Harvard University, 33 Kirkland Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. dhezel@fas.harvard.edu
authors.forename: Dianne M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Hezel
authors.forename: Bradley C
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Riemann
authors.forename: Richard J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: McNally
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009014:Morals; D009770:Obsessive Behavior / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D010146:Pain / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D010147:Pain Measurement; D017288:Pain Threshold / Q000523:psychology*; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*