Trial reportEuropean journal of pain (London, England)2025
Alcohol-Induced Disinhibition of Facial Responses to Pain.
Trial report in European journal of pain (London, England), 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Alcohol-Induced Disinhibition of Facial Responses to Pain.European journal of pain (London, England) · 2025Trial
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundAlcohol in sub-toxic dosages has appeared to slightly reduce experimental pain in psychophysical paradigms. However, this effect may also reflect impaired scaling performance in subjective ratings. To address this, we additionally assessed facial responses as a more direct and cognitively unbiased pain measure, while acknowledging the potential confound of alcohol's effects on motor inhibitory function.
methodsWe investigated 41 healthy participants (22 females) in a randomised, double-blind, and placebo-controlled design; targeting two moderate breath-alcohol levels (0.6‰, 0.8‰). Before and after an alcoholic or placebo drink, painful heat stimuli were applied to the forearm. Facial responses were analysed using the Facial Action Coding System (FACS). Subjective responses were assessed using a Numerical Rating Scale (NRS). To control for alcohol's effects on motor inhibitory function, participants completed the antisaccade task, which assesses inhibitory control over reflexive motor responses (eye movement).
resultsWhile pain ratings were unaffected, alcohol significantly affected facial responses to pain, with the high alcohol dose leading to increased facial responses. Moreover, alcohol also led to a decrease in inhibitory control, with poorer performance in the antisaccade task. Not surprisingly, we found a significant association between the alcohol-induced increase in facial responses and the alcohol-induced decrease in inhibitory control. DISCUSSION: Alcohol-induced motor disinhibition likely enhanced facial responses to pain without altering the subjective pain experience. In consequence, individuals under the influence of alcohol may facially display stronger pain levels (than experienced), which should not be interpreted as intentional exaggeration by clinicians involved in pain assessment. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: Subtoxic doses of alcohol are known to produce weak analgesic effects. In contrast, the facial responses to pain were elevated under alcohol in the present study; probably due to an alcohol-induced motor disinhibition. Thus, individuals under the influence of alcohol may be analgized while in parallel being facially overly pain responsive.
Indexed as
Identifiers
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.