Chronic Pain, Aging, and Pain Tolerance

TL;DR

Older adults often feel mild pain less strongly, but may have more difficulty with severe or long-lasting pain.
Younger adults are more likely to experience emotional distress and depression related to chronic pain.
Pain is influenced not just by intensity, but by stress, expectations, coping, and nervous system recovery.

Research shows that age affects how people experience and cope with chronic pain, but not in a simple way.

An earlier large study found that younger adults were more likely to experience depression and emotional distress related to chronic pain than older adults. Adults over age 50 appeared better able to cope emotionally with ongoing pain, possibly due to differences in expectations, life experience, and stress load.

More recent research helps explain this by showing that pain processing changes with age. As people get older, the threshold for sensing mild pain often increases, meaning it may take a stronger stimulus to notice pain. This effect has been observed especially with temperature-related pain and appears more pronounced in women.

However, aging may also reduce tolerance to more intense pain and slow recovery. Natural pain-inhibiting systems become less effective, and the nervous system takes longer to return to normal after injury. As a result, older adults may experience longer-lasting pain and prolonged sensitivity once pain develops.

Taken together, these findings show that pain intensity and pain suffering are not the same thing. Older adults may appear more tolerant of everyday pain, while younger adults may experience pain as more disruptive—especially when combined with psychological and life stress.