Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, Brain Research Group, Yonsei University Wonju College of Medicine, South Korea.
Anaesthesia. 2012 Oct;67(10):1146-51. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2044.2012.07267.x. Epub 2012 Jul 16.
Stress increases cortisol and decreases testosterone. It is not known whether pain is affected by stress-related testosterone. Therefore, we investigated whether stress can affect pain perception by decreasing testosterone and increasing cortisol. Pain thresholds, pain and anxiety ratings and salivary testosterone and cortisol levels were measured in 46 healthy men during resting and stressful conditions. Pain was induced by electrical stimulation. Stress was induced by having participants perform a medical test. Stress significantly increased anxiety ratings and salivary cortisol levels, but decreased salivary testosterone levels. Stress also increased pain ratings and decreased pain thresholds. During stress, cortisol levels were negatively correlated with pain thresholds and testosterone levels were positively correlated with pain thresholds. Results indicated that testosterone can decrease and cortisol can increase pain induced by electrical stimulation, suggesting that acute clinical pain may be relieved by controlling stress and managing consequent stress-related testosterone and cortisol.
压力会增加皮质醇并降低睾酮。目前尚不清楚疼痛是否会受到与压力相关的睾酮的影响。因此，我们研究了压力是否可以通过降低睾酮和增加皮质醇来影响疼痛感知。在休息和压力条件下，测量了 46 名健康男性的疼痛阈值、疼痛和焦虑评分以及唾液睾酮和皮质醇水平。通过电刺激诱导疼痛。通过让参与者进行医学测试来诱发压力。压力显着增加了焦虑评分和唾液皮质醇水平，但降低了唾液睾酮水平。压力还增加了疼痛评分并降低了疼痛阈值。在压力期间，皮质醇水平与疼痛阈值呈负相关，而睾酮水平与疼痛阈值呈正相关。结果表明，睾酮可以减轻电刺激引起的疼痛，而皮质醇可以增加疼痛，这表明急性临床疼痛可以通过控制压力和管理随之而来的与压力相关的睾酮和皮质醇来缓解。
