Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX, 76019, USA.
Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX, 76019, USA; Department of Biology, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX, 76019, USA.
Neurosci Lett. 2021 Jun 21;756:135966. doi: 10.1016/j.neulet.2021.135966. Epub 2021 May 19.
Pain is a prevalent issue for elderly individuals. Unfortunately, it remains unclear how acute and chronic pain differs as a function of age, and surprisingly, there is even disagreement on how the sensory and affective dimensions of pain change with age. Therefore, the current investigation evaluated such age differences with behavioral methodology using a preclinical model of arthritis. The primary factors of interest were age and chronicity of pain using behavioral assessments designed to measure sensory and affective dimensions of pain processing. Mechanical and thermal paw withdrawal thresholds demonstrated unique outcomes associated with sensory processing across age. The processing of pain affect measured by the Place Escape/Avoidance Paradigm (PEAP testing) also demonstrated age related effects. Overall, younger animals appeared more sensitive to nociceptive stimuli than older animals. However, the results from the current study suggest that chronicity of pain can be impactful for how older animals process pain related affect and avoidance. The finding of unique patterns of pain across age and duration of pain highlights the clinical literature. Future research should aim to elucidate mechanisms for affective processing of chronic pain in older subjects.
疼痛是老年人普遍存在的问题。不幸的是，目前尚不清楚急性和慢性疼痛如何随年龄而变化，而且令人惊讶的是，甚至对于疼痛的感觉和情感维度如何随年龄变化也存在分歧。因此，目前的研究使用关节炎的临床前模型，通过行为方法评估了这种年龄差异。主要的研究因素是年龄和疼痛的慢性程度，使用了旨在测量疼痛处理的感觉和情感维度的行为评估。机械和热爪撤回阈值显示了与年龄相关的感觉处理的独特结果。通过放置逃避/回避范式（PEAP 测试）测量的疼痛影响的处理也表现出与年龄相关的影响。总体而言，年轻动物对伤害性刺激比老年动物更敏感。然而，目前的研究结果表明，疼痛的慢性程度可能会影响老年动物如何处理与疼痛相关的情感和回避。疼痛在年龄和疼痛持续时间上的独特模式的发现强调了临床文献。未来的研究应旨在阐明慢性疼痛的情感处理的机制。
