Anticipation of pain and of pain control under hypnosis: Heart rate and blood pressure responses in the cold pressor test.

Studied heart rate and systolic blood pressure changes anticipatory to 3 stress conditions: (a) ice water pain to be felt at normal levels in the hypnotic nonanalgesis condition, (b) absent or greatly reduced ice water pain to be experienced following hypnotic analgesia suggestions, and (c) the pain of ice water to be hallucinated, with no ice water stimulation. Ss were 18 highly responsive hypnotic undergraduates; 12 of the Ss were also experienced in hallucination. Despite the absence of pain, the maximum anticipatory rises in both physiological indicators appeared when the analgesic condition was anticipated. The anticipation of hallucinated pain also led to a rise greater than that in anticipation of experienced physically produced pain. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)