Trial reportEuropean journal of pain (London, England)2018
Fear of pain and cortisol reactivity predict the strength of stress-induced hypoalgesia.
Trial report in European journal of pain (London, England), 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT06170957 (The Effect of Modified Teat on Pain, Physiological Variables, and Stress Level During Heel Blood Collection in Mechanically Ventilated Term Newborns), which is not on this map. Cited by 19 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
The Effect of Modified Teat on Pain, Physiological Variables, and Stress Level During Heel Blood Collection in Mechanically Ventilated Term Newborns
Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 53 citations in OpenAlex.
- Physiological and autonomic responses to intermittent low-lung-volume apnoea and pain sensitivity: A randomized controlled pilot trial.Experimental physiology · 2026Trial
- Review
- Opioidergic modulation of stress-induced hyperalgesia in adult zebrafish.Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2026Article
- Hypoalgesic effects, safety, and feasibility of a 6-minute high-lung-volume static apnea intervention.The Korean journal of pain · 2026Article
- The Burden of Preoperative Stress: Biological Mechanisms and Postoperative Outcomes.Brain sciences · 2026Review
- A novel finding on the sex-dependent role of BDNF and GSK-3beta in the medial prefrontal cortex in pain threshold changes in a rat model of fear conditioning with respect to the effect of extinction and the time period after conditioning.Experimental brain research · 2025Article
- Association between blood cortisol levels and numerical rating scale in prehospital pain assessment.Communications medicine · 2025Article
- Observational
- Replication study on the role of dopamine-dependent prefrontal reactivations in human extinction memory retrieval.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Investigating the Impact of Stress on Pain: A Scoping Review on Sense of Control, Social-Evaluative Threat, Unpredictability, and Novelty (STUN Model).Journal of pain research · 2024Article
- Understanding the relationships between physiological and psychosocial stress, cortisol and cognition.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2023Review
- Altered Pain in the Brainstem and Spinal Cord of Fibromyalgia Patients During the Anticipation and Experience of Experimental Pain.Frontiers in neurology · 2022Article
- Post-Mastectomy Pain: An Updated Overview on Risk Factors, Predictors, and Markers.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Review
- Collection of cerebrospinal fluid in 50 adult healthy donkeys (Equus asinus): clinical complications, and cytological and biochemical constituents.BMC veterinary research · 2021Article
- The role of inflammatory cytokines in anemia and gastrointestinal mucosal injury induced by foot electric stimulation.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Effects of acute mental stress on conditioned pain modulation in temporomandibular disorders patients and healthy individuals.Journal of applied oral science : revista FOB · 2021Article
- The Effects of Posttraumatic Stress and Trauma-Focused Disclosure on Experimental Pain Sensitivity Among Trauma-Exposed Women.Journal of traumatic stress · 2020Article
- Neuropeptide and cytokine regulation of pain in the context of substance use disorders.Neuropharmacology · 2020Review
- The interaction between stress and chronic pain through the lens of threat learning.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2019Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundAcute stress can have an effect on pain sensitivity, yet the direction of the effect - whether it is hypoalgesic or hyperalgesic - is mixed across studies. Moreover, which part of the stress response influences pain sensitivity is still unclear. In the current experimental study, we aim to examine the effect of acute stress on heat pain thresholds and pain tolerance levels in healthy participants, while taking into account individual differences in stress responses.
methodsForty-two healthy participants were randomly assigned to either a well-validated stress paradigm: the Maastricht Acute Stress Task (MAST; combining physical and psychological stressors) or to a nonstressful version of the task. Heat pain thresholds and tolerance levels were assessed at three times: prior to the MAST, immediately after the MAST during the presumed sympatho-adrenal medullary (SAM) response, and 15 min after MAST to cover the presumed hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis response. Stress responses were assessed both subjectively and physiologically.
resultsWe observed that the acute stress induction led to increased heat pain thresholds, an effect that was present only in participants showing a cortisol response following stress induction and only in the presumed HPA axis time window. The strength of this hypoalgesic effect was further predicted by the change in cortisol and by fear of pain levels.
conclusionsOur findings indicate that the HPA axis - and not the autonomic - stress response specifically underlies this stress-induced hypoalgesic effect, having important implications for clinical states with HPA axis dysfunctions. SIGNIFICANCE: This experimental study shows that an acute stress induction - that combines physical and psychological stressors - increases heat pain thresholds, but not tolerance in healthy participants. Furthermore, the magnitude of this stress-induced hypoalgesic effect is predicted by cortisol reactivity and fear of pain, revealing specific involvement of the HPA axis stress system and interactions with pain-related psychosocial aspects.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.