Sometimes as I’m interviewing a patient their eyes become big.  They turn their heads, distracted, and cry out in pain.  I sit still, unaffected, waiting for the episode to pass, as it eventually always does.

Kidney stone pain?  Needles?  Setting a broken arm?  No, these patient’s suffer the torment of the automatic cuff inflating to check their blood pressure.

Even though they might think otherwise, these people have low pain tolerance (LPT).  This is useful information, as it immediately becomes far less likely that anything is seriously wrong. 

Note: while this test has excellent specificity for LPT, the clinican should recognize that the sensitivity is lacking.