Factors Influencing Pain Tolerance

Factors that may increase or decrease tolerance:

• Past experiences with painful stimuli (e.g., surgery, trauma, illness)
• Knowledge about cause of pain, its treatment, and probable outcome
• Personal meaning of pain (e.g., recurrence of cancer, day off from school or work)
• Knowledge and experience in coping with pain, willingness to try new techniques
• Stress, fatigue, energy levels
• How others treat person when he or she has pain (e.g., secondary gains)
• Available resources (e.g., money for treatment)
• Interactions with healthcare providers (e.g., preventive approach: pain is treated early or patient has to prove that pain is “real” before anything is done to help relieve it)
• Cultural background: some cultures encourage the expression of even mild discomfort, whereas others expect stoic, quiet tolerance of even very severe pain

Factors that usually decrease pain tolerance:

• Disbelief on the part of others
• Lack of knowledge about pain, pain-relief measures
• Fears about addiction, loss of control over pain
• Poor experiences with past pain-relief efforts
• Disability, increasing or long-term
• Fatigue and monotony