Avoidance versus focused attention and the perception of pain: differential effects for men and women

The aim of the current investigation was to compare the effects of two diff erent attentional strategies (focused vs. avoidance) on how males and femal es respond to experimentally induced pain. One hundred healthy adults were instructed to either attend towards or away from cold presser pain. Measure s of pain tolerance, pain threshold and recovery were taken, as were self-r eport measures of sensory and affective pain experiences. As expected, gend er was found to moderate tolerance to pain: males were found to be more tol erant to cold presser pain than females. With respect to the self-report me asures, males reported less sensory pain when they attended toward the pain than when they avoided it. However, a similar effect was not found in wome n, suggesting that attentional focusing may only be a useful strategy for m ales. These results are discussed in light of previous research. (C) 2000 I nternational Association for the Study of Pain. Published by Elsevier Scien ce B.V. All rights reserved.