Question: What type of experiments would you do to recieve feedback on pain?

Kellie Jaremko answered on 28 Apr 2016:

Good morning 237hemb38,

Great question. There are many ways we can study pain.
** We ask people to rate their pain on a scale 0-10 with 10 being the worst. We also ask about the type of pain: burning vs. sharp vs. throbbing etc.

** There are surveys that ask patients about how pain affects their day to day activities and mood.

** We can also take saliva or blood samples to look at stress hormones that change in pain and addiction

** There are tests to see pain tolerance like how long you can keep your hand in ice water.

Studies in animals are different since they can’t tell us about their pain. We tend to use tests like the cold water test, hotplate test, or how much pressure you can put on a rats paw before they move it away.