The aim of this study was to investigate stress coping strategies used in relation to heat and cold pain thresholds in healthy subjects. After using the Jalowiec Coping Scale, cold and heat pain thresholds were examined using the Quantitative Somatosensory Test in 47 healthy subjects. The participants were separated into thermal pain sensitive and insensitive groups, based on thermal pain perception. The results showed that subjects sensitive to thermal pain tended to adopt an emotive stress coping style significantly more commonly than the insensitive subjects. Furthermore, women displayed a marked preference for this style compared to men. The conclusion is that emotional stress coping did play a role in the perception of thermal pain in this group of healthy subjects and that clinical nursing interventions need to focus on the relationship between emotion and coping.
