ArticlePrinciples and practice of clinical research (2015)2020
Exercise-induced pain threshold modulation in healthy subjects: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Article in Principles and practice of clinical research (2015), 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 31 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effects of transcranial direct current stimulation on pain and function in patients with knee osteoarthritis: A systematic review and meta-analysis.PM & R : the journal of injury, function, and rehabilitation · 2026Pooled it
- Efficacy of aerobic exercises for knee osteoarthritis: a network meta analysis of randomized clinical trials.Journal of orthopaedic surgery and research · 2025Pooled it
- Dry Needling in Sports and Sport Recovery: A Systematic Review with an Evidence Gap Map.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2025Pooled it
- Understanding Exercise-Induced Hypoalgesia: An Umbrella Review of Scientific Evidence and Qualitative Content Analysis.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2025Pooled it
- Foam rolling and stretching do not provide superior acute flexibility and stiffness improvements compared to any other warm-up intervention: A systematic review with meta-analysis.Journal of sport and health science · 2024Pooled it
- Trial
- Modulation of pain perceptions following treadmill running with different intensities in females.Physiological reports · 2023Trial
- Understanding intracortical excitability in phantom limb pain: A multivariate analysis from a multicenter randomized clinical trial.Neurophysiologie clinique = Clinical neurophysiology · 2021Trial
- Physical and Psychological Features During Remission From Non-Specific Neck Pain.European journal of pain (London, England) · 2026Article
- Tension-Type Headache: Toward an Integrative Multidimensional Framework for Clinical Stratification and Personalized Management.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Review
- Comparison of Cost-Effectiveness and Cost-Utility of a Telerehabilitation Programme for the Management of Non-Specific Neck Pain: A Study Protocol.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Obesity and Systemic Inflammation Disrupt the Compensatory Role of Physical Activity in Chronic Pain Conditions.Biomedicines · 2025Article
- Pressure-pain thresholds of the plantar foot reflect relative tissue thickness and are systematically higher in active runners than non-runners.Frontiers in physiology · 2025Article
- Opposite effects of isometric exercise on pain sensitivity of healthy individuals: the role of pain modulation.Pain reports · 2024Article
- The Endogenous Pain Modulatory System as a Healing Mechanism: A Proposal on How to Measure and Modulate It.NeuroSci · 2024Review
- Perceived Pain in Athletes: A Comparison between Endurance Runners and Powerlifters through a Cold Experimental Stimulation and Two Sessions of Various Physical Activation.Sports (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- [Pain modulation through exercise : Exercise-induced hypoalgesia in physiotherapy].Schmerz (Berlin, Germany) · 2022Review
- Temporal Summation in Fibromyalgia Patients: Comparing Phasic and Tonic Paradigms.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Load and fatigue monitoring in musicians using an online app: A pilot study.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- Effects of Exercise-Induced Hypoalgesia at Different Aerobic Exercise Intensities in Healthy Young Adults.Journal of pain research · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe use of exercise is a potential treatment option to modulate pain (exercise-induced hypoalgesia). The pain threshold (PT) response is a measure of pain sensitivity that may be a useful marker to assess the effect of physical exercise on pain modulation.
aimThe aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to evaluate the PT response to exercise in healthy subjects.
methodsWe searched in MEDLINE, EMBASE, Web of Science, Lilacs, and Scopus using a search strategy with the following search terms: "exercise" OR "physical activity" AND "Pain Threshold" from inception to December 2nd, 2019. As criteria for inclusion of appropriate studies: randomized controlled trials or quasi-experimental studies that enrolled healthy subjects; performed an exercise intervention; assessed PT. Hedge's effect sizes of PT response and their 95% confidence intervals were calculated, and random-effects meta-analyses were performed.
resultsFor the final analysis, thirty-six studies were included (n=1326). From this we found a significant and homogenous increase in PT in healthy subjects (ES=0.19, 95% CI= 0.11 to 0.27, I2=7.5%). According to subgroup analysis the effect was higher in studies: with women (ES=0.36); performing strength exercise (ES=0.34), and with moderate intensity (ES=0.27), and no differences by age were found. Confirmed by the meta-regression analysis.
conclusionThis meta-analysis provides evidence of small to moderate effects of exercise on PT in healthy subjects, being even higher for moderate strength exercise and in women. These results support the idea of modulation of the endogenous pain system due to exercise and highlight the need of clinical translation to chronic pain population.
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What OpenQuestion holds
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.