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Women Rate Capsaicin Pain Stimulus as More Intense than Men: Presented at WCP

By Peggy Peck
Special to DG News

SAN DIEGO, CA -- August 22, 2002 -- In response to topical pain stimulus, women rated the pain intensity higher than men but men experienced more anxiety about the pain, according to results of a small study that compared sensory and emotional aspects of pain perception.

Maud Frot, PhD, form the Anesthesia Research Unit, McGill University in Montreal, Canada, presented the study findings on August 21^st at the 10^th World Congress on Pain (WCP).

The investigators based their findings on capsaicin challenges in seven men and eight female volunteers aged 20 to 46 years.

Subjects participated in two testing sessions. In one session, a patch with capsaicin 0.25 percent was applied to the face for 30 minutes while in the other session, a capsaicin patch was placed on the ankle for 30 minutes.

Visual analog scale was used to rate pain intensity, unpleasantness, and anxiety each minute during application of the patch and during the 30-minute interval after removal of the patch.

During capsaicin application, women rated pain intensity and unpleasantness higher than men (p=0.01). This effect was stronger on the ankle than on the face, even though both sexes rated intensity and unpleasantness higher on the face.

For both stimulation sites, men had more pain-related anxiety than women (p=0.04).

After removing the patch, there was no overall effect of sex on pain intensity and unpleasantness (p=0.6).

However, on the face, women rated post-capsaicin pain intensity and unpleasantness lower than men, whereas on the ankle, women continued to rate the pain higher than men. After the patch removal, men were still more anxious than women (p=0.04).

Results of this study using a topical capsaicin pain stimulus show that women rate pain higher than men, and this effect differs with the site of stimulation, while men, on the other hand, experience more anxiety related to pain.

The study was supported by grants from the Medical Research Foundation.

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