• J Orofac Pain · Jan 2004

    Evidence for up-regulated central nociceptive processing in patients with masticatory myofascial pain.

    • Eleni Sarlani, Edward G Grace, Mark A Reynolds, and Joel D Greenspan.
    • Department of Biomedical Sciences, Research Center for Neuroendocrine Influences on Pain, Brotman Facial Pain Center, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD 21201, USA. ens002@dental.umaryland.edu
    • J Orofac Pain. 2004 Jan 1;18(1):41-55.

    AimsPrevious work suggests that hyperexcitability of central nociceptive neurons may play a role in the pain of temporomandibular disorders (TMD). The aim of this study was to test this theory by assessing differences, between myalgic TMD patients and pain-free controls, in temporal summation of mechanically evoked pain and aftersensations following repetitive noxious stimulation.MethodsSixteen series of 10 repetitive, mildly noxious mechanical stimuli were applied to the fingers of 25 female TMD patients with masticatory myofascial pain and 25 age-matched, pain-free female subjects. All subjects rated the pain intensity and unpleasantness evoked by the first, fifth, and tenth stimuli in the series and their aftersensations at 15 seconds and 1 minute following the last stimulus. Data were analyzed by 3-way repeated-measures analysis of variance.ResultsPain and unpleasantness ratings increased with repetition of the stimulation (P < .0001). In addition, there was a significant trial number x group interaction for the pain intensity ratings, such that TMD patients provided higher ratings than controls for the tenth stimulus (P < .001). The increase in unpleasantness ratings with repetitive stimulation was also higher for the patient group (P < .0001). Moreover, TMD patients rated the intensity of aftersensations as higher (P < .005) and reported painful aftersensations at significantly greater frequency (P < .05).ConclusionA generalized hyperexcitability of central nociceptive processing in this TMD patient group is indicated by their more pronounced temporal summation of pain and greater aftersensations following repetitive noxious digital stimulation versus controls. Such hyperexcitability may contribute to the pathophysiology of TMD pain.

      Pubmed     Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…