Improving exposure component and generalization potential of stress inoculation for pain

Stress inoculation for pain involves education about the psychological dimensions of pain, training in a number of coping skills, and practice in applying these skills during exposure to the noxious stimulus. In a previous study the exposure component (which involved six practice sessions) proved ineffective; moreover the efficacy of the other components was not repeated on the generalization measures. The present study compared three variations in the exposure component and found that training with a single practice session on the cold pressor task proved more helpful than training with no practice at all, which in turn was no worse than training with six practice sessions. Moreover, therapeutic attention to generalization resulted in increased pain tolerance on the pressure algometer task.