The Effects of Exercise, Competitive Sports, and Sedentary Competition on Stress-Induced Analgesia

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1999
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Haverford College. Department of Psychology
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eng
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Haverford users only
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Sternberg, Bailin, Grant, and Gracely (1998) studied the alterations of pain perceptions in male and female athletes and found that responses were altered in response to athletic competition. This experiment looked at athlete and non-athlete responses to noxious stimuli in various competitive situations to determine the extent to which analgesia can be attributed to physical activity, mental competition, or both. Three conditions were used to evaluate pain sensitivity: a track meet, a sedentary video game, and an exercise-only treadmill run. Subjects were tested either two days before or two days after for a baseline measurement and immediately following the activity. Competition overall reduced intensity and affect ratings on a cold pressor test across all athletes in the track meet condition. Most interestingly, for cold pressor test in the lab conditions, males and females responded differently with the males exhibiting analgesia in the sedentary condition and females showing analgesia in the exercise condition. Heat withdrawal data was inconsistent but a general hyperalgesia, similar to that of Sternberg et al. (1998) was found. Competition of different types induces both hyperalgesic and analgesic states that are dependent on the type of activity and the gender of the subject.
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