Pain
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Several studies have shown that male subjects report lower pain intensity to female compared to male experimenters. The present experiment examined whether experimenter gender also modulated autonomic pain responses. Sixty-four students (32 females) participated in a 2 Subject gender x 2 Experimenter gender x 15 Pain Tests mixed design. ⋯ Autonomic responses were heart rate variability and skin conductance levels. The results revealed significant interactions between experimenter gender and subject gender on pain intensity and arousal, but there were no interactions in the physiological data. In conclusion, the lower pain report in male subjects to female experimenters is not mediated by changes in autonomic parameters, and the effect of experimenter gender is probably due to psychosocial factors.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Differential effect of intravenous S-ketamine and fentanyl on atypical odontalgia and capsaicin-evoked pain.
Atypical odontalgia (AO) is an intraoral pain condition of currently unknown mechanisms. In 10 AO patients and 10 matched healthy controls, we examined the effect of intravenous infusion of an N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist S-ketamine and a mu-opioid agonist fentanyl on spontaneous AO pain and on an acute intraoral nociceptive input evoked by topical application of capsaicin. The drugs were administered in a randomized, placebo-controlled, cross-over manner. ⋯ No side-to-side differences in QST measures were found in AO patients. The present study demonstrates that AO is unlikely to be primarily due to a persistent afferent barrage from the peripheral region. Furthermore, in contrast to studies on various neuropathic pain conditions, fentanyl and S-ketamine in the present doses failed to attenuate AO pain.
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Pain that interferes with daily life appears to be strongly age-related in cross-sectional studies, although the nature of this relationship over time has not been established. We have investigated the onset and persistence of pain and pain interference over a 3-year period to determine their association with age in older people. A 3-year follow-up postal survey was conducted of adults aged 50 years and over (n=5366) who had previously been recruited as part of the North Staffordshire Osteoarthritis Project. ⋯ In adults aged 50 years and over, the onset of pain that interferes with life shows a clear gender difference and a consistent rise with age into the oldest age-group. This was in strong contrast to the onset of pain which showed no gender or age-related trends. The implications for public health, as for the treatment of the individual, are twofold, relating to efforts to prevent disabling pain from occurring and to understand the factors that accelerate the impact which pain has on everyday life when people reach the oldest ages.