[Quantitative study of pain in man. Validity of a simple instrument]

A generator producing painful stimuli every 20 ms by way of 2 ms square wave electrical impulses was used to study pain quantitatively, and the reliability of the measurements carried out on 24 healthy volunteers. The parameters measured were the levels of detection, pain and tolerance. The results showed that these levels were both stable and reproducible. However, there were very important individual differences.