A laboratory technique for the assessment of pain behavior.

The understanding and assessment of headache has been handicapped by inadequate assessment of pain behavior. The current study aimed to develop a simple laboratory technique to evaluate a headache sufferer's apparent oversensitivity to, and avoidance of, stimuli such as noise and bright lights. The results revealed that subjects could reliably calibrate the stimuli on a scale from "comfortable" to "definitely unpleasant." Significant group differentiation (controls/headache prone) was possible on the basis of auditory stimulus sensitivity, irrespective of current pain state. On the other hand, endurance time at an intense level differentiated subjects in pain from those pain-free, irrespective of group (headache/nonheadache). The advantages and potential of such an objective assessment of pain are discussed.