***TASK*** the task is to summarize an input biomedical literature in six sentences 
    ***INPUT*** the input is a biomedical literature 
    ***OUTPUT*** the output is the summary of an input biomedical literature in six sentences 
    ***DOCUMENTATION*** 
    ***EXAMPLES*** 
    Input: UNLABELLED Two experiments assessed how interpersonal transactions influence responses to  cold pressor pain in women versus men . In Experiment 1 , 91 young adults ( 57 women , 34 men ) were r and omly assigned to either a no transaction ( NT ) condition in which they coped alone with the cold pressor test or a transaction opportunity ( TO ) condition in which they also had the option of interacting with an empathetic , reflecting experimenter . Compared to men , women had lower pain tolerance and reported more pain and catastrophizing , although there were no gender differences in support seeking or other ways of coping . Within the TO condition , women were no more likely than men to initiate a transaction , but female speakers were more pain-focused than male speakers , and speaking with the empathetic interaction partner had generally negative effects on pain perception and coping . In Experiment 2 , 126 young adults ( 76 women , 50 men ) were r and omly assigned to NT , TO , or experimenter-directed ( 1 ) Distraction ( DT ) , ( 2 ) Reinterpretation ( RT ) , or ( 3 ) Encouragement ( ET ) conditions . Although men had similar levels of pain tolerance across the 5 transaction conditions , women in NT and TO conditions exhibited reduced tolerance compared with those in the DT , RT , and ET conditions . Pain tolerance times among women in DT , RT , and ET conditions were equal to or exceeded those of men in these conditions . Together , findings suggest the nature of interpersonal transactions exerts a greater influence on women 's responses to noxious stimulation than those of men . PERSPECTIVE This study adds to literature indicating that women exhibit reduced tolerance for experimentally induced pain compared with men . These results suggest that the nature of interpersonal transactions also affects women 's responses to noxious stimulation , more than those of men OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that greater global and situational relationship satisfaction would reduce the negative impact of threatening information on acute pain . DESIGN An experimental design was used to manipulate threat and elicit acute pain via a cold pressor task . SETTING The study was completed in a research laboratory at a large urban university in the Midwestern USA . SUBJECTS Participants were 134 couples , in which at least one individual was an undergraduate student . METHODS After administration of a global relationship satisfaction measure , couples were r and omly assigned to either receive high or low threatening information about the painful task . Following the threat manipulation , couples discussed the upcoming task and rated their satisfaction with the interaction ( i.e. , situational relationship satisfaction ) . The design ated pain participant then completed the painful task alone . RESULTS The threat manipulation altered couples ' perceived threat of pain . Situational relationship satisfaction moderated the effect of threat on pain trajectories such that situational relationship satisfaction predicted less pain intensity at an earlier point in the task for the low threat condition than the high threat condition . Greater global relationship satisfaction predicted greater likelihood of task completion among those in the low threat condition , whereas it was unrelated to task completion in the high threat condition . Greater global relationship satisfaction also predicted lower pain intensity throughout the task . CONCLUSIONS These findings demonstrate that the interpersonal context is independently related to acute pain and may also alter the effect of threatening information on acute pain Social contact promotes enhanced health and well-being , likely as a function of the social regulation of emotional responding in the face of various life stressors . For this functional magnetic resonance imaging ( fMRI ) study , 16 married women were subjected to the threat of electric shock while holding their husb and 's h and , the h and of an anonymous male experimenter , or no h and at all . Results indicated a pervasive attenuation of activation in the neural systems supporting emotional and behavioral threat responses when the women held their husb and 's h and . A more limited attenuation of activation in these systems occurred when they held the h and of a stranger . Most strikingly , the effects of spousal h and -holding on neural threat responses varied as a function of marital quality , with higher marital quality predicting less threat-related neural activation in the right anterior insula , superior frontal gyrus , and hypothalamus during spousal , but not stranger , h and -holding Objectives : Certain forms of social support have been shown to improve pain-coping behaviors and pain outcomes in older adults with chronic pain , but little is known about the effect of social support on pain outcomes in older adults following trauma exposure . Methods : We analyzed data from a prospect i ve longitudinal study of adults aged 65 years and older presenting to an emergency department after a motor vehicle collision ( MVC )  to characterize the relationship between perceived social support and MVC-related pain after trauma overall and by subgroups based on sex , depressive symptoms , and marital status . Results : In our sample ( N=176 ) , patients with low perceived social support had higher pain severity 6 weeks after MVC than patients with high perceived social support after adjustment for age , sex , race , and education ( 4.2 vs. 3.2 , P=0.04 ) . The protective effect of social support on pain severity at 6 weeks was more pronounced in men and in married individuals . Patients with low social support were less likely to receive an opioid prescription in the emergency department ( 15 % vs. 32 % , P=0.03 ) , but there was no difference in opioid use at 6 weeks ( 22 % vs. 20 % , P=0.75 ) . Discussion : Among older adults experiencing trauma , low perceived social support was associated with higher levels of pain at 6 weeks We tested whether the presence of a stranger  reduces cardiovascular responses during stressful tasks if the evaluation potential of the stranger is minimized and whether cardiovascular responses are affected by the quality of support in a friendship . Undergraduate women performed stressful tasks in one of three conditions :  Alone , with a same-sex Stranger , or with a same-sex best Friend .  The stranger and friend could not hear participants ' responses . Alone women had the greatest increases in SBP and HR while women in the Stranger and Friend conditions did not differ in their responses . In the Friend condition , HR responses were smallest in women who were highly satisfied with the support that they generally received from their friend . We conclude that the presence of a nonevaluative friend or stranger can reduce cardiovascular responses and that the quality of supportive ties modulates the impact of those ties on responses to stress & NA ; The study was design ed to assess whether the social context of a pain experience impacted on the relation between catastrophizing and duration of pain behaviour . Based on a communal coping model , the prediction was that the presence of an observer during a pain procedure would differentially influence the display of pain behaviour in high and low catastrophizers . University undergraduates taking part in a cold pressor procedure were r and omly assigned to one of two conditions : ( 1 )  participant alone ( n=30 ) , or ( 2 ) observer present ( n=34 ) . Analysis of video records revealed that high pain catastrophizers displayed communicative pain behaviours ( e.g. facial displays , vocalizations ) for a longer duration when an observer was present compared to high pain catastrophizers who were alone during the pain procedure . The duration of pain management behaviours ( e.g. holding , rubbing ) did not vary significantly as a function of catastrophizing . When the observer was present , high catastrophizers also reported using fewer cognitive coping strategies than low catastrophizers . The pattern of findings suggests that in the presence of an observer , high pain catastrophizers show a propensity to engage in strategies that more effectively communicate their pain , and are less likely to engage in strategies that might minimize pain . Theoretical implication s of the findings are discussed UNLABELLED The objectives of this study were to demonstrate that empathy and validation could be increased in an observing partner who received a brief perspective-taking manipulation , result ing in less pain severity and greater pain tolerance in their partner , who experienced experimental pain . In addition , we examined the correlations between perceived empathy/validation and behavioral ratings of validation and invalidation . In 126 pain-free romantic couples , 1 partner was r and omly assigned to complete the cold pressor task while the other observed . The couples were r and omly assigned to a ) a perspective-taking group in which observing partners were privately instructed to take the perspective of the pain participant ; or b ) a control group in which observing partners received only a description of the task . Compared with the control group , pain participants in the perspective-taking group reported that observing partners had been more validating during the task and they also reported significantly lower pain severity . In addition , pain participants ' reports of their partners ' validation and observing partners ' self-reported empathic feelings were significantly related to lower pain severity over time . The results provide support that perspective taking may induce empathic feelings , in addition to perceptions of validation , which in turn promotes emotion regulation during pain . PERSPECTIVE The experimental evidence in this study suggests that empathic feelings can be induced in significant others with simple instructions , and this manipulation leads to less pain in their partners undergoing a painful task . The results suggest that perspective taking , empathy , and validation should be further investigated as pain intervention targets Objective : To investigate whether a support intervention ( warm touch enhancement ) influences physiological stress systems that are linked to important health outcomes . Growing evidence points to a protective effect of social and emotional support on both morbidity and mortality . Methods : In this study , 34 healthy married couples ( n = 68 ) , aged 20 to 39 years ( mean = 25.2 years ) , were r and omly assigned to a “ behavior monitoring ” control group or participated in a 4-week intervention study in which clinic levels of  plasma oxytocin , 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure ,  and salivary cortisol and alpha amylase  were obtained pre and post intervention , at the same time salivary oxytocin was taken at home during weeks 1 and 4 . Results : Salivary oxytocin was enhanced both early and late in the intervention group and alpha amylase was reduced at post treatment in intervention group husb and s and wives relative to controls . Husb and s in the intervention group had significantly lower post treatment 24-hour systolic blood pressure than the control group . Conclusion : Increasing warm touch among couples has a beneficial influence on multiple stress-sensitive systems . BP = blood pressure ; ABP = ambulatory blood pressure ; SBP = systolic blood pressure ; DBP = diastolic blood pressure ; OT = oxytocin ; HPA = hypothalamic-pituitary adrenocortical ; SNS = sympathetic nervous system ; AUC = area under the curve Oxytocin is a neuropeptide regulating social‐affiliative and reproductive behaviour in mammals . Despite robust pre clinical evidence for the antinociceptive effects and mechanisms of action of exogenous oxytocin , human studies have produced mixed results regarding the analgesic role of oxytocin and are yet to show a specific modulation of neural processes involved in pain perception . In the present study , we investigated the analgesic effects of 40 IU of intranasal oxytocin in 13 healthy male volunteers using a double‐blind , placebo‐controlled , cross‐over design and brief radiant heat pulses generated by an infrared laser that selectively activate Aδ‐ and C‐fibre nerve endings in the epidermis , at the same time as recording the ensuing laser‐evoked potentials ( LEPs ) . We predicted that oxytocin would reduce subjective pain ratings and attenuate the amplitude of the N1 , N2 and P2 components . We observed that oxytocin attenuated perceived pain intensity and the local peak amplitude of the N1 and N2 ( but not of P2 ) LEPs , and increased the latency of the N2 component . Importantly , for the first time , the present study reports an association between the analgesic effect of oxytocin ( reduction in subjective pain ratings ) and the oxytocin‐induced modulation of cortical activity after noxious stimulation ( attenuation of the N2 LEP ) . These effects indicate that oxytocin modulates neural processes contributing to pain perception . The present study reports preliminary evidence that is consistent with electrophysiological studies in rodents showing that oxytocin specifically modulates Aδ/C‐fibre nociceptive afferent signalling at the spinal level and provides further specificity to evidence obtained in humans indicating that oxytocin may be modulating pain experience by modulating activity in the cortical areas involved in pain processing BACKGROUND The presence of social support has been associated with decreased stress responsiveness . Recent animal studies suggest that the neuropeptide oxytocin is implicated both in prosocial behavior and in the central nervous control of neuroendocrine responses to stress . This study was design ed to determine the effects of social support and oxytocin on cortisol , mood , and anxiety responses to psychosocial stress in humans . METHODS In a placebo-controlled , double-blind study , 37 healthy men were exposed to the Trier Social Stress Test . All participants were r and omly assigned to receive intranasal oxytocin ( 24 IU ) or placebo 50 min before stress , and either social support from their best friend during the preparation period or no social support . RESULTS Salivary free cortisol levels were suppressed by social support in response to stress . Comparisons of pre- and poststress anxiety levels revealed an anxiolytic effect of oxytocin . More importantly , the combination of oxytocin and social support exhibited the lowest cortisol concentrations as well as increased calmness and decreased anxiety during stress . CONCLUSIONS Oxytocin seems to enhance the buffering effect of social support on stress responsiveness . These results concur with data from animal research suggesting an important role of oxytocin as an underlying biological mechanism for stress-protective effects of positive social interactions Objective The purpose of this experimental study was to supplement and exp and on clinical research demonstrating that the provision of social support is associated with lower levels of acute pain . Methods Undergraduates ( 52 men and 49 women ) performed the cold pressor task either alone or accompanied by a friend or stranger who provided active support , passive support , or interaction .  Pain perception was measured on a 10-point scale . Results Participants in the active support and passive support conditions reported less pain than participants in the alone and interaction conditions , regardless of whether they were paired with 
    Output:
    
HIGHLIGHTSSocial presence alone may not affect the experience of experimentally‐induced pain .
The impact of social support on pain may be context ‐dependentForms of social support may decrease or increase pain and physiology differentlyVerbal communication of support may be important .
The mere presence of another person was not sufficient to modulate pain perception .
Together , our findings suggest that the impact of  social support on pain is context ‐dependent with the verbal communication of support and intimate relationships being of particular importance