Gaab Jens, Jiménez Julia, Voneschen Livia, Oschwald Daniel, Meyer Andrea H, Nater Urs M, Krummenacher Peter
Division of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Department of Psychology, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
Neuropsychobiology. 2016;74(2):87-95. doi: 10.1159/000454986. Epub 2017 Feb 11.
Stress-induced analgesia (SIA) is an adaptive response of reduced nociception following demanding acute internal and external stressors. Although a psychobiological understanding of this phenomenon is of importance for stress-related psychiatric and pain conditions, comparably little is known about the psychobiological mechanisms of SIA in humans. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of acute psychosocial stress on heat pain perception and its possible neuroendocrine mediation by salivary cortisol levels and α-amylase activity in healthy men. Employing an intra-individual assessment of heat pain parameters, acute psychosocial stress did not influence heat pain threshold but significantly, albeit slightly, increased heat pain tolerance. Using linear mixed-model analysis, this effect of psychosocial stress on heat pain tolerance was not mediated by increases of salivary cortisol and state anxiety levels or by the activity of α-amylase. These results show that while psychosocial stress is selectively analgesic for heat pain tolerance, this observed effect is not mediated by stress-induced increases of salivary cortisol and α-amylase activity, as proxies of both the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis and the autonomic nervous system activation.
应激诱导镇痛(SIA)是在面临严峻的急性内外部应激源后,痛觉感受降低的一种适应性反应。尽管从心理生物学角度理解这一现象对于与应激相关的精神疾病和疼痛状况具有重要意义,但对于人类SIA的心理生物学机制却知之甚少。本研究的目的是调查急性心理社会应激对健康男性热痛觉的影响,以及唾液皮质醇水平和α-淀粉酶活性对其可能的神经内分泌调节作用。通过对热痛参数进行个体内评估发现,急性心理社会应激并未影响热痛阈值,但显著提高了热痛耐受性,尽管增幅较小。使用线性混合模型分析表明,心理社会应激对热痛耐受性的这种影响并非由唾液皮质醇水平升高、状态焦虑水平升高或α-淀粉酶活性介导。这些结果表明,虽然心理社会应激对热痛耐受性具有选择性镇痛作用,但观察到的这种效应并非由下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺轴和自主神经系统激活的替代指标——应激诱导的唾液皮质醇和α-淀粉酶活性增加所介导。