Brief cognitive and relaxation training increases tolerance for a painful clinical electromyographic examination.

We examined the effect of cognitive and/or relaxation training on the tolerance for a painful one and one-half hour clinical electromyographic (EMG) examination, which includes multiple electric shocks to nerves and multiple insertions of needle electrodes into muscles. Four groups of 10 males each received training as follows: (i) cognitive only, (ii) relaxation only, (iii) cognitive plus relaxation, and (iv) neither cognitive nor relaxation (control). The three trained groups tolerated the EMG study better than the control group as judged by assessments by "blind" observers, self-ratings, and measurements of heart rate. However, none of the training sessions was clearly superior to the other two types of training. We recommend cognitive relaxation training be used in the clinical setting to increase tolerance for painful medical procedures.