The journal of pain : official journal of the American Pain Society
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Social modeling is a process by which pain behaviors are learned, and research has found parents act as models for their children's behavior. Despite social learning theory predicting that same-sex models have greater effect, no experimental investigation to date has examined the role of sex of the model or observer in social learning of pediatric pain. The present study recruited 168 parent-child dyads (equal father-son, father-daughter, mother-son, and mother-daughter dyads) in which children were generally healthy and 6 to 8 years old. ⋯ Additionally, girls in the exaggerate condition rated their overall pain intensity during the CPT significantly higher than boys in the same condition. No child sex differences were observed in pain intensity for the control or minimize conditions. Parent expressions of pain affects children's anxiety, and sex-specific effects of parental exaggerated pain expression on children's own subsequent pain experience are present.
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Seeing one's own body has been reported to have analgesic properties. Analgesia has also been described when seeing an embodied virtual body colocated with the real one. However, there is controversy regarding whether this effect holds true when seeing an illusory-owned body part, such as during the rubber-hand illusion. ⋯ We observed a significantly higher heat pain threshold at colocation than at a 30-cm distance. The analgesic effects of seeing a virtual colocated arm were eliminated by increasing the distance between the real and the virtual arm, which explains why seeing an illusorily owned rubber arm does not consistently result in analgesia. These findings are relevant for the use of virtual reality in pain management.
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Educating the general public about chronic pain and its care is a national health priority. We evaluated knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs (KAB) of a 5-state, population-based sample of Hispanic individuals aged 35 to 75 years without chronic pain, representing more than 8.8 million persons. A Web-based survey assessed KAB using an adapted version of the Survey of Pain Attitudes-Brief and self-reported knowledge about chronic pain (nothing, a little, a lot). In unweighted analyses of participants (N = 349), the mean age was 52.0 (±10.6) years, 54% were women, 53% preferred Spanish, and 39% did not graduate from high school. More participants reported knowing nothing about chronic pain (24%) than a lot (12%). In weighted logistic models with knowing nothing as the reference, knowing a lot was associated with greater KAB for chronic pain-related emotions, functioning, and cure (all P < .01) but poorer KAB about pain medications (P < .001). Associations were similar for those knowing a little. Men and women preferring Spanish had poorer KAB about pain medications than men preferring English (both P < .001). In view of Hispanic individuals' disparities in chronic pain care, these data underscore the need for effective public educational campaigns about chronic pain. ⋯ In this 5-state representative sample of Hispanic individuals without chronic pain, one-quarter reported knowing nothing about chronic pain and had poorer KAB about multiple aspects of this disease. This study reinforces the need to evaluate and address gaps in the general public's knowledge about chronic pain.
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Comparative Study
Mild social stress in mice produces opioid-mediated analgesia in visceral but not somatic pain states.
Visceral pain has a greater emotional component than somatic pain. To determine if the stress-induced analgesic response is differentially expressed in visceral versus somatic pain states, we studied the effects of a mild social stressor in either acute visceral or somatic pain states in mice. We show that the presence of an unfamiliar conspecific mouse (stranger) in an adjacent cubicle of a standard transparent observation box produced elevated plasma corticosterone levels compared with mice tested alone, suggesting that the mere presence of a stranger is stressful. ⋯ Compared with mice tested alone, the presence of a stranger produced a dramatic opioid-dependent reduction in pain behavior associated with visceral but not somatic pain. This social stress-induced reduction of visceral pain behavior relied on visual but not auditory/olfactory cues. These findings suggest that visceral pain states may provoke heightened responsiveness to mild stressors, an effect that could interfere with testing outcomes during simultaneous behavioral testing of multiple rodents.
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Aerobic exercise improves outcomes in a variety of chronic health conditions, yet the support for exercise-induced effects on chronic pain in humans is mixed. Although many rodent studies have examined the effects of exercise on persistent hypersensitivity, the most used forced exercise paradigms that are known to be highly stressful. ⋯ Our data indicate that voluntary exercise rapidly and effectively reduces hypersensitivity as well as stress-related outcomes without altering swelling. Moreover, the level of exercise is unrelated to the analgesic and stress-reducing effects, suggesting that even modest amounts of exercise may impart significant benefit in persistent inflammatory pain states.