ReviewPain reports
Pain perception and processing in individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder: a systematic review with meta-analysis.
Review in Pain reports. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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
16 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 29 citations in OpenAlex.
- The role of post-trauma stress symptoms in the development of chronic musculoskeletal pain and disability: A systematic review.European journal of pain (London, England) · 2023Pooled it
- Guidance for simultaneous treatment of chronic pain and PTSD: a Delphi study.Journal of behavioral medicine · 2026Article
- Nurses' competencies, barriers, and experience in trauma-informed care: a cross-sectional study.BMC nursing · 2026Article
- The COMPASS framework for chronic pain and posttraumatic stress disorder: navigating the transition from threat to safety through yoga.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Associations of fear of recurrence and social support with post-traumatic stress disorder and disease recurrence in patients with severe acute pancreatitis: a retrospective study.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Article
- [Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) in pain therapy : Potentials, mechanisms and clinical applications for chronic pain with traumatic background].Schmerz (Berlin, Germany) · 2025Review
- Thiamine Compounds Alleviate Oxidative Stress, Over-Expression of Pro-Inflammatory Markers and Behavioral Abnormalities in a Mouse Predation Model of PTSD.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Aversive experiences induce valence plasticity of instructive signals to change future learning rules in mice.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Water temperature and biological sex influence cold pressor pain in healthy adults: a randomized within-subjects trial.Frontiers in physiology · 2025Article
- Sensory alterations in post-traumatic stress disorder.Current opinion in neurobiology · 2024Review
- Factors Associated With Distress Related to Posttraumatic Stress Disorder at the End of Life Among U.S. Veterans.Journal of pain and symptom management · 2023Observational
- A Cross-Sectional Time Course of COVID-19 Related Worry, Perceived Stress, and General Anxiety in the Context of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder-like Symptomatology.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Understanding Pain and Trauma Symptoms in Veterans From Resting-State Connectivity: Unsupervised Modeling.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms and Pain Sensitization After Whiplash Injury: A Longitudinal Cohort Study With Quantitative Sensory Testing.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2022Article
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Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a known risk factor for the development of chronic pain conditions, and almost 1 in 5 individuals with chronic pain fulfills the criteria for PTSD. However, the relationship between PTSD and pain is poorly understood and studies on pain perception in patients with PTSD show inconsistent results suggesting that different sensory profiles exist among individuals with PTSD. Here, we (1) systematically summarize the current literature on experimentally evoked pain perception in patients with PTSD compared to subjects without PTSD, and (2) assess whether the nature of the traumatic event is associated with different patterns in pain perception. The main outcome measures were pain threshold, pain tolerance, and pain intensity ratings as well as measures of temporal summation of pain and conditioned pain modulation. A systematic search of MEDLINE, EMBASE, Web of Science, PsycINFO, and CINAHL identified 21 studies for the meta-analysis, including 422 individuals with PTSD and 496 PTSD-free controls. No main effect of PTSD on any outcome measure was found. However, stratification according to the nature of trauma revealed significant differences of small to medium effect sizes. Combat-related PTSD was associated with increased pain thresholds, whereas accident-related PTSD was associated with decreased pain thresholds. No clear relationship between PTSD and experimentally evoked pain perception exists. The type of trauma may affect pain thresholds differently indicating the presence of different subgroups with qualitative differences in pain processing.
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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.