PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AS AN INTERVENTION FOR PAIN BASED ON GATE CONTROL THEORY.
Contributors: Indiana University School of Nursing.
Published: 1987
Number of pages: 133
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Biology, Animal Physiology.
Description: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of physical activity on pain tolerance and pain perception. The expectation that physical activity would reduce the perception of pain was deduced from clinical observation and propositions of the Gate Control Theory. The specific proposition tested was that large primary afferent fiber stimulation would inhibit pain perception. Following this proposition, stimulation of innocuous fibers by muscle movement should mediate pain perception. The hypothesis tested was that there would be no difference in time to tolerance or descriptors of pain perception among subjects when they experienced noxious stimulation with no intervention and when they experienced noxious stimulation with muscle movement, which stimulated appropriate large primary afferent fibers.

Subjects were thirty registered nurses and nursing students. Pain was produced by a pressure finger clip device. Pain tolerance was measured as the amount of time from onset of pressure until subjects indicated they could not tolerate the discomfort any longer. Pain perception was measured by three scales: (1) the McGill Pain Questionnaire verbal descriptors, (2) the McGill Pain Questionnaire pain rating index, and (3) a visual analog scale.

Cognitive-emotive factors affect pain perception by altering sensory interpretation and by descending influences to the spinal cord. Two cognitive-emotive factors that have been implicated in alterations of pain perception are anxiety and locus of control. The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and Nichols' pain specific locus of control tool were employed to measure anxiety and locus of control.

The data were analyzed by a 2 x 2 ANOVA with repeated measures on the second factor. The null hypothesis was rejected with all pain measures. When subjects experienced the intervention they were able to tolerate the pain longer, selected fewer and less severe pain descriptors, selected lower pain rating indicators, and indicated less pain on the visual analog scale than when subjects did not experience the intervention (control).

The study contributes to theory building by support of the Gate Control Theory proposition of pain inhibition by large primary afferent fiber stimulation. The selection of muscle movement as an effective inhibition technique has been supported. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.).
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-12, Section: B, page: 5231.

Thesis (D.N.S.)--INDIANA UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF NURSING, 1987.

School code: 0815.