An investigation into the perception of pain intensity and unpleasantness of repeated toe injections in healthy human volunteers

摘要

This study measured the intensity and unpleasantness of injection of local anaesthetic into the great toe of 29 healthy human volunteers (women = 24) on four separate occasions. Pain intensity and unpleasantness were measured using separate visual analogue scales on each occasion. Results of two separate one-way analyses of variance with repeated measures showed no significant differences in pain intensity or in pain unpleasantness among the four occasions. There was a possible trend, though statistically not significant, for unpleasantness to decrease with time. Overall, the unpleasantness ratings were at least as high as those for intensity suggesting that unpleasantness is an important factor in the pain associated with toe injection.