Gender differences in pain ratings and pupil reactions to painful pressure stimuli
Abstract
In order to investigate gender differences in pain perception, the present study employed both a psychophysical and a psychophysiological measure. In experiment 1, 20 subjects rated the painfulness of 4 different levels of tonic pressure applied to their fingers using a verbally anchored categorization procedure. In general agreement with studies of pain threshold and tolerance, female subjects reported greater pain at high levels of stimulation, with no gender difference being evident at low pressure levels. In experiment 2, 16 different subjects were exposed to the same painful pressure stimuli while measuring their pupil reactions using infrared video pupillometry. The pupil dilations seen during the last 10 sec of the 20-sec pressure application turned out to be a highly significant indicator of pain intensity. When female and male subjects were compared on this measure, a similar divergent pattern as in the psychophysical data emerged, with female subjects showing greater pupil dilations at high pressure levels only. The fact that gender differences in pain perception can be demonstrated using an autonomic indicator of pain that is beyond voluntary control suggests that these differences reflect low-level sensory and/or affective components of pain rather than attitudinal or response-bias factors.
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Having a supportive partner is associated with reduced symptom burden including less pain, improved quality of life, and fewer distress symptoms in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, metastatic breast cancer, and colorectal cancer.
“the presence of a supportive partner has been associated with reduced symptom burden (including less pain), improved quality of life, and fewer symptoms of distress in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia 92, metastatic breast cancer 93, 94, and other cancer types such as colorectal cancer95, 96.”
From Evaluating psychosocial contributions to chronic pain outcomes (2018) · cites this paper as [96]
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- Authors
- Ellermeier, W., & Westphal, W.
- Affiliations
- University of Würzburg (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Ellermeier, Wolfgang
- ORCID
- Ellermeier, Wolfgang
- Venue
- Pain
- Published
- 1995-06
- Volume
- 61
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 435-439
- ISSN
- 0304-3959 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2070947554
- Cited by
- 233
- References
- 23
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 12 · 2013: 9 · 2012: 8
- FWCI
- 4.64
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Pain (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Wilhelm Sander-Stiftung
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Pain Mechanisms and Treatments
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Pain Management and Placebo Effect
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health › Pediatric Pain Management Techniques
- Keywords
- gender differences, pain perception, pain intensity, pupil dilation, pupillometry, sex differences in pain
- MeSH terms
- Female, Humans, Male, Pain Measurement, Perception, Reflex, Pupillary, Sex Characteristics, Stress, Mechanical, Students
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