Effects of familial pain models on daily pain indices and performance during the cold pressor task

To understand better the role of pain history in current response to pain e pisodes, this research examined pain-related indices from the patient's fam ily of origin and their relationships to the patient's coping with acute pa in. Participants were 42 healthy men and women who provided information abo ut their own and their family's pain history and then were administered a c old presser task. High frequency of family pain modeling was associated wit h higher frequency of current pain episodes, more types of pain, greater in tensity, and also lower physiological arousal and subjective pain ratings d uring the cold presser. The findings underscore the relationships between f amilial pain modeling and current pain-related functioning.