What a Sham(e): Sham-Controlled Conditioned Pain Modulation Effects on Pressure but Not Heat Pain Thresholds in Healthy Volunteers.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Conditioned pain modulation (CPM) is a well-established experimental paradigm to study descending pain modulation in humans, measuring the pain modulatory effect of a painful conditioning stimulus (CS) on a painful test stimulus (TS). Control conditions using a non-painful CS accounting for modulatory effects not attributable to the painfulness of the CS are seldom included. Thus, this study aimed to differentiate CPM effects from perceived changes of the TS unrelated to the painfulness of the CS by comparing effects of a painful and a control CS on four different TS.

Methods

Forty-nine healthy participants underwent a combined parallel and sequential CPM paradigm with a cold water bath (median NRS 8/10) as painful and an ambient-temperature sham water bath (media

SUBMITTER: Hau M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12212405 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature