Dataset Information

Blue-light treatment reduces spontaneous and evoked pain in a human experimental pain model.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Chronic pain is a frequent severe disease and often associated with anxiety, depression, insomnia, disability, and reduced quality of life. This maladaptive condition is further characterized by sensory loss, hyperalgesia, and allodynia. Blue light has been hypothesized to modulate sensory neurons and thereby influence nociception.

Objectives

Here, we compared the effects of blue light vs red light and thermal control on pain sensation in a human experimental pain model.

Methods

Pain, hyperalgesia, and allodynia were induced in 30 healthy volunteers through high-density transcutaneous electrical stimulation. Subsequently, blue light, red light, or thermal control treatment was applied in a cross-over design. The nonvisual effects of the respective light treatments were examined using a well-established quantitative sensory testing protocol. Somatosensory parameters as well as pain intensity and quality were scored.

Results

Blue light substantially reduced spontaneous pain as assessed by numeric rating scale pain scoring. Similarly, pain quality was significantly altered as assessed by the German counterpart of the McGill Pain Questionnaire. Furthermore, blue light showed antihyperalgesic, antiallodynic, and antihypesthesic effects in contrast to red light or thermal control treatment.

Conclusion

Blue-light phototherapy ameliorates pain intensity and quality in a human experimental pain model and reveals antihyperalgesic, antiallodynic, and antihypesthesic effects. Therefore, blue-light phototherapy may be a novel approach to treat pain in multiple conditions.

SUBMITTER: Reuss AM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8660004 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov-Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Blue-light treatment reduces spontaneous and evoked pain in a human experimental pain model.

Reuss Anna Maria AM Groos Dominik D Scholl Robert R Schröter Marco M Maihöfner Christian C

Pain reports 20211101 4

<h4>Introduction</h4>Chronic pain is a frequent severe disease and often associated with anxiety, depression, insomnia, disability, and reduced quality of life. This maladaptive condition is further characterized by sensory loss, hyperalgesia, and allodynia. Blue light has been hypothesized to modulate sensory neurons and thereby influence nociception.<h4>Objectives</h4>Here, we compared the effects of blue light vs red light and thermal control on pain sensation in a human experimental pain mod ...[more]

PMID: 34901678

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Project description:IntroductionWhen performing an exercise or a functional test, pain that is evoked by movement or muscle contraction could be a stronger stimulus for changing how individuals move compared to tonic pain. We investigated whether the decrease in muscle force production is larger when experimentally-induced knee pain is directly associated to the torque produced (movement-evoked) compared to a constant painful stimulation (tonic).MethodsTwenty-one participants performed three isometric knee extension maximal voluntary contractions without pain (baseline), during pain, and after pain. Knee pain was induced using sinusoidal electrical stimuli at 10 Hz over the infrapatellar fat pad, applied continuously or modulated proportionally to the knee extension torque. Peak torque and contraction duration were averaged across repetitions and normalized to baseline.ResultsDuring tonic pain, participants reported lower pain intensity during the contraction than at rest (p < 0.001), whereas pain intensity increased with contraction during movement-evoked pain (p < 0.001). Knee extension torque decreased during both pain conditions (p < 0.001), but a larger reduction was observed during movement-evoked compared to tonic pain (p < 0.001). Participants produced torque for longer during tonic compared to movement-evoked pain (p = 0.005).ConclusionOur results indicate that movement-evoked pain was a more potent stimulus to reduce knee extension torque than tonic pain. The longer contraction time observed during tonic pain may be a result of a lower perceived pain intensity during muscle contraction. Overall, our results suggest different motor adaptation to tonic and movement-evoked pain and support the notion that motor adaptation to pain is a purposeful strategy to limit pain. This mechanistic evidence suggests that individuals experiencing prevalently tonic or movement-evoked pain may exhibit different motor adaptations, which may be important for exercise prescription.

Dataset Information

Blue-light treatment reduces spontaneous and evoked pain in a human experimental pain model.

Introduction

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion

Publications

Blue-light treatment reduces spontaneous and evoked pain in a human experimental pain model.

Similar Datasets

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