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 episodes, this research examined pain-related indices from the patient's family of origin and their relationships to the patient's coping with acute pain. Participants were 42 healthy men and women who provided information about their own and their family's pain history and then were administered a cold pressor task. High frequency of family pain modeling was associated with higher frequency of current pain episodes, more types of pain, greater intensity, and also lower physiological arousal and subjective pain ratings during the cold pressor. The findings underscore the relationships between familial pain modeling and current pain-related functioning.