COLD-PRESSER PAIN TOLERANCE IN OPIATE AND COCAINE ABUSERS - CORRELATES OF DRUG TYPE AND USE STATUS

The objective of this study was to describe pain tolerance in drug abu sers. Research suggests that drug dependence and pain perception share common neuroanatomical and neurophysiological substrates; thus the ab use of psychoactive drugs was hypothesized to relate to pain tolerance . We examined cold-pressor pain tolerance in 122 male, current and for mer opioid and cocaine abusers, across use status and primary drug of abuse. Descriptive analyses showed that the ratio of pain-sensitive to pain-tolerant persons was considerably higher than that described in the normative cold-pressor pain literature. Two-way analysis of varian ce revealed a significant main effect for using status, indicating tha t current drug use is associated with decreased pain tolerance. The ma in effect for drug type approached abuse as interrelated phenomena.