Stress inoculation for acute pain: a clinical trial.

The study attempted a clinical evaluation of the efficacy of stress inoculation training for postoperative pain control using patients undergoing coronary artery graft surgery. A treatment group receiving stress inoculation training was compared to attention-education and no-treatment control groups. No differences were found between the groups on two pain rating measures, analgesic intake, or measures of state anxiety and depression. The ineffectiveness of stress inoculation in this study may be due to the difference between experimental and clinical pain, the multiple demands of the preoperative period, possible memory difficulties which some patients may have experienced, or the possibility that the procedure is not sufficiently potent for the intensity of this type of pain.