• Sine Skovbjerg, Torben Jørgensen, Lars Arendt-Nielsen, Jeanette F Ebstrup, Tina Carstensen, and Thomas Graven-Nielsen.
• The Research Centre for Prevention and Health, Capital Region, Copenhagen, Denmark. Electronic address: sine.skovbjerg.jakobsen@regionh.dk.
• J Pain. 2017 Mar 1; 18 (3): 274-284.

AbstractIncreased pressure pain sensitivity and impaired descending pain control have been associated with chronic pain, but knowledge on the variability in the adult general population is lacking. Pressure pain thresholds (PPTs) and descending pain control assessed using conditioned pain modulation (CPM) were recorded in a randomly selected sample (n = 2,199, 53% female) of the Danish adult general population aged 18 to 70 years. PPTs were recorded over the tibialis anterior muscle and the upper trapezius muscle. CPM was defined as the difference between PPT assessments before and during conditioning with cold pressor pain (hand) for 2 minutes. Conditioning pain intensity was assessed using a visual analog scale and questionnaire data were collected. Female sex (P < .001) and younger age (P ≤ .02) was associated with lower PPTs at both body sites. For the trapezius muscle, high perceived stress was associated with lower PPTs (P < .02), whereas an interaction was found between body mass index and sex. CPM potency was lower in female compared with male participants (P ≤ .003), whereas no association with age was found. Higher level of education (P ≤ .05), premature withdrawal from the cold pressor test (P ≤ .02), and high visual analog scale score (P ≤ .02) were associated with a larger CPM response.Copyright © 2016 American Pain Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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