MEASUREMENTS OF PAIN SENSITIVITY IN PATIENTS WITH PSYCHONEUROSIS

Abstract

THE COMPLAINT of pain has a high incidence in the civilian psychoneuroses, as well as in combat neuroses.¹It occurs in cases of hysteria and anxiety neurosis as precise descriptions of headache, thoracic pain, cardiac pain and abdominal pain. In cases of hypochondriasis it is described in vaguer terms. It is one of the most difficult symptoms to evaluate and to treat. The problem arises as to whether in psychoneurotic persons one is dealing with thresholds of perception which differ from the normal or with different capacities toward reaction or elaboration of stimuli perceived with equal intensity by the normal person. The purpose of this study is to investigate the threshold of perception and reaction in a series of psychoneurotic patients and in a series of normal control subjects, in an experimental situation. The Wolff-Hardy apparatus offers an instrument which can be readily used in the investigation of this