Meiselles Doron, Aviram Joshua, Suzan Erica, Pud Dorit, Eisenberg Elon
The Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology.
Faculty of Social Welfare and Health Sciences, University of Haifa.
J Pain Res. 2017 Nov 13;10:2657-2663. doi: 10.2147/JPR.S149663. eCollection 2017.
People often state that they are "sensitive" or "insensitive" to pain. However, the accuracy and clinical relevance of such statements is unclear.
The aim of this study was to search for associations between self-perception of sensitivity to pain and experimental pain measures, including known psychophysical inhibitory or excitatory pain paradigms.
Subjective sensitivity to pain was reported by 75 healthy participants and included three self-perceived variables: pain threshold, pain sensitivity and pain intensity in response to a hypothetical painful event (hypothetical pain intensity [HPI]). Experimental pain measures consisted of thermal pain threshold (°C), suprathreshold thermal pain intensity (Visual Analog Scale, 0-100) and the psychophysical paradigms of conditioned pain modulation (CPM) and temporal summation (TS), representing inhibitory and excitatory pain processes, respectively.
No significant correlations were found between self-perceived pain threshold or pain sensitivity and any of the experimental pain measures. In contrast, the reported HPI correlated with thermal pain threshold ( = -0.282; = 0.014), suprathreshold thermal pain intensity ( = 0.367; = 0.001) and CPM ( = 0.233; = 0.044), but not with TS.
Self-perception of pain sensitivity articulated by intangible expressions such as pain threshold or pain sensitivity is unrelated to actual sensitivity to experimental pain. In contrast, when measured by intensity of a hypothetical painful event (HPI), sensitivity to pain is associated with some, but not all, experimental pain reports. Further studies are needed for better understanding of these associations and their potential clinical significance.
人们常称自己对疼痛“敏感”或“不敏感”。然而，此类表述的准确性及临床相关性尚不清楚。
本研究旨在探寻对疼痛敏感性的自我认知与实验性疼痛测量指标之间的关联，包括已知的心理物理学抑制性或兴奋性疼痛范式。
75名健康参与者报告了对疼痛的主观敏感性，其中包括三个自我感知变量：疼痛阈值、疼痛敏感性以及对假设性疼痛事件的疼痛强度（假设性疼痛强度[HPI]）。实验性疼痛测量指标包括热痛阈值（℃）、阈上热痛强度（视觉模拟量表，0 - 100）以及条件性疼痛调制（CPM）和时间总和（TS）的心理物理学范式，分别代表抑制性和兴奋性疼痛过程。
自我感知的疼痛阈值或疼痛敏感性与任何实验性疼痛测量指标之间均未发现显著相关性。相比之下，报告的HPI与热痛阈值（r = -0.282；P = 0.014）、阈上热痛强度（r = 0.367；P = 0.001）和CPM（r = 0.233；P = 0.044）相关，但与TS无关。
通过诸如疼痛阈值或疼痛敏感性等无形表述所表达的对疼痛敏感性的自我认知，与对实验性疼痛的实际敏感性无关。相比之下，当通过假设性疼痛事件的强度（HPI）来衡量时，对疼痛的敏感性与部分（但并非全部）实验性疼痛报告相关。需要进一步研究以更好地理解这些关联及其潜在的临床意义。
