ArticleThe journal of pain2024
Gender Differences in Pain Threshold, Unpleasantness, and Descending Pain Modulatory Activation Across the Adult Life Span: A Cross Sectional Study.
Article in The journal of pain, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 39 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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.
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Who cites it
39 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 53 citations in OpenAlex.
- Sex-specific pain management and outcomes in pediatric elective posterior spinal fusion: a database review.Spine deformity · 2026Pooled it
- Preoperative knee joint hypothermia reduces inflammation and recovery time and increases range of motion after total knee arthroplasty: A randomized controlled trial.Knee surgery, sports traumatology, arthroscopy : official journal of the ESSKA · 2025Trial
- Spinal NLRP3 blockade reverses morphine-prolonged neuropathic pain and proinflammatory immune actions in prenatal alcohol-exposed male mice.Neuropharmacology · 2026Article
- Optimism and mindfulness are associated with decreased abdominal pain among adolescents with inflammatory bowel disease.Journal of the Canadian Association of Gastroenterology · 2026Article
- Sex differences in pain in 2 large and diverse US databases.Pain reports · 2026Article
- The Risk Factors and Mortality Among Patients With Different Combination Patterns of Opioids and Benzodiazepines: A Retrospective Study.Pharmacology research & perspectives · 2026Article
- Article
- Pain assessment using physiological responses/markers in different types of pain: a scoping review.NPJ digital medicine · 2026Article
- Uncovering Sex and Gender Differences in Sarcoidosis: A Systematic Review of Current Evidence.Journal of personalized medicine · 2026Review
- Prolonged Prescription Rates of Z-Hypnotics Among Individuals with Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain and Insomnia: The HUNT Study.Nature and science of sleep · 2026Article
- Social conflict imagery induces stress, social and physical pain: sex differences in autonomic and affective responses and pathways to resilience and wellbeing.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Efficacy and safety of hyperbaric oxygen therapy for women with fibromyalgia: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.Reumatologia · 2026Article
- Characterizing insomnia and sleep quality in a cohort with tension type headache.Open medicine (Warsaw, Poland) · 2026Article
- Understanding risk and protective factors for pain and healthy aging: an intersectional and resilience-based perspective.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Acid-sensing ion channel 1a deficiency drives endocrine hypertension in male mice.The Journal of physiology · 2026Article
- Reliability and Validity of Non-Invasive Electrical Detection and Pain Thresholds Using PainVisionJournal of pain research · 2026Article
- Shared-decision-making, trust in the healthcare system and health literacy are associated with self-reported pain levels: a population-based cross-sectional study in individuals living with a chronic health condition in Wales.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- Male and female workers suffering from chronic low back pain display different interrelationships between the biopsychosocial variables.Journal of rehabilitation medicine · 2025Article
- Sex-Based Differences in Symptomatology in the First Month Following Atrial Fibrillation Catheter Ablation.Journal of cardiovascular electrophysiology · 2025Article
- Physical Activity and Pain Perception in Residents Under Conditions of Chronic Hypoxia.Oxygen (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 6 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
The neurobiological underpinnings of gender differences in pain perception, and how these differences may be modified by age, are incompletely understood, placing patients at risk of suboptimal pain management. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we examined brain responses in the descending pain modulatory system (DPMS, specifically, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, insula, hypothalamus, amygdala, and periaqueductal gray, during an evoked pain task. We investigated the interaction of age and gender in our sample of healthy adults (27 females, 32 males, 30-86 years) on DPMS response. In a perceptually matched thermal pain paradigm, we investigated pain unpleasantness and neural responses for 3 heat pain percepts: just noticeable pain, weak pain, and moderate pain (MP). Females reported just noticeable pain at a lower temperature, but reported less unpleasantness at weak pain and MP percepts, compared to males. There was a significant age-by-gender interaction during moderate pain in the right anterior cingulate cortex and bilateral insula, such that, males had a stronger positive relationship between DPMS response and age compared to females in these regions. Our results indicate that differences in DPMS responses may explain some gender differences in pain perception and that this effect may change across the adult lifespan. PERSPECTIVE: Gender differences in pain have been well-documented but the brain mechanisms for these differences are still unclear. This article describes potential differences in brain functioning during different levels of pain that could explain differences in pain responses between men and women across the adult lifespan.
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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.