Although most agree that emotion can alter pain, little well-controlled research has been conducted to examine this issue. The present review provides psychological and physiological rationales for considering the influence of emotion on pain, followed by an overview of recent work in this area. We conclude that the pain-modulating effects of emotion are best characterized by an interaction between valence and arousal. Positive emotions lead to pain reduction as long as a minimal threshold of arousal is attained. However, negative emotions only lead to pain inhibition when they are highly arousing. Negative emotions coupled with low-to-moderate arousal facilitate pain.
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Rhudy et al. (2001) studied this question.
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