Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
4.8
2.7
Journals
Brain Sciences
Special Issues
Endogenous Analgesia: Methodological Aspects and Clinical Application
share announcement

Endogenous Analgesia: Methodological Aspects and Clinical Application

A special issue of Brain Sciences (ISSN 2076-3425). This special issue belongs to the section "Neuroscience of Pain".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 January 2022) | Viewed by 5233

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Elena Enax-Krumova

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Neurology, University Hospital Bergmannsheil gGmbH, Ruhr-University of Bochum, 44789 Bochum, Germany
Interests: somatosensory system; mechanism-based pain treatment; sensory testing; chronic pain; neuropathic pain
Prof. Dr. Massimiliano Valeriani

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. Department of Neuroscience, Ospedale Pediatrico Bambino Gesù, Rome, Italy
2.The Faculty of Medicine, Department of Health Science and Technology, Center for Sensory-Motor Interaction, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark
Interests: headache; migraine; children; pain
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In the present Special Issue, we aim to exploit different aspects of the assessment of endogenous analgesia. Various descending control mechanisms modulate the spinal cord responses to afferent noxious inputs. In this issue, we aim to discuss the different neuronal pathways and their pharmacology, and to point out changes in descending controls in different clinical conditions, including the potential implications in terms of mechanism-based treatment. Studies on the opposing descending facilitatory systems are also welcome. The audience of such an issue is intended to include both pre-clinical and clinical researchers, with the aim to establish links between the findings of basic science and their clinical applications.

Prof. Dr. Elena Enax-Krumova
Prof. Dr. Massimiliano Valeriani
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Brain Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Endogenous analgesia
  • descending pain inhibition
  • descending facilitatory system
  • mechanism-based pain treatment

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.

Published Papers (2 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

10 pages, 663 KiB  
Article
The Contribution of Psychological Factors to Inter-Individual Variability in Conditioned Pain Modulation Is Limited in Young Healthy Subjects
by Philipp Graeff, Regina Stacheneder, Laura Alt and Ruth Ruscheweyh
Brain Sci. 2022, 12(5), 623; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci12050623 - 10 May 2022
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1905
Abstract
Conditioned pain modulation (CPM) describes the decrease in pain perception of a test stimulus (TS) when presented together with a heterotopic painful conditioning stimulus (CS). Inter-individual differences in CPM are large and have been suggested to reflect differences in endogenous pain modulation. In [...] Read more.
Conditioned pain modulation (CPM) describes the decrease in pain perception of a test stimulus (TS) when presented together with a heterotopic painful conditioning stimulus (CS). Inter-individual differences in CPM are large and have been suggested to reflect differences in endogenous pain modulation. In a previous analysis, we demonstrated that in young, healthy participants, inter-individual differences account for about one-third of CPM variance, with age and sex together explaining only 1%. Here, we investigated if psychological factors explain significant amounts of inter-individual variance in CPM. Using the same dataset as before, we performed both cross-sectional (n = 126) and repeated measures (n = 52, 118 observations) analysis and the corresponding variance decompositions, using results of psychological questionnaires assessing depression, trait anxiety and pain catastrophizing. Psychological factors did not significantly predict CPM magnitude, neither directly nor when interactions with the CPM paradigm were assessed; however, the interaction between depression and the paradigm approached significance. Variance decomposition showed that the interaction between depression and the CPM paradigm explained an appreciable amount of variance (3.0%), but this proportion seems small when compared to the residual inter-individual differences (35.4%). The main effects of the psychological factors and the interactions of anxiety or catastrophizing with the CPM paradigm are explained at <0.1% each. These results show that the contribution of psychological factors to inter-individual CPM differences in healthy participants is limited and that the large inter-individual variability in the CPM effect remains largely unexplained. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Endogenous Analgesia: Methodological Aspects and Clinical Application)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

13 pages, 850 KiB  
Article
Inter-Individual Differences Explain More Variance in Conditioned Pain Modulation Than Age, Sex and Conditioning Stimulus Intensity Combined
by Philipp Graeff, Alina Itter, Katharina Wach and Ruth Ruscheweyh
Brain Sci. 2021, 11(9), 1186; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11091186 - 9 Sep 2021
Cited by 21 | Viewed by 2472
Abstract
Conditioned pain modulation (CPM) describes the reduction in pain evoked by a test stimulus (TS) when presented together with a heterotopic painful conditioning stimulus (CS). CPM has been proposed to reflect inter-individual differences in endogenous pain modulation, which may predict susceptibility for acute [...] Read more.
Conditioned pain modulation (CPM) describes the reduction in pain evoked by a test stimulus (TS) when presented together with a heterotopic painful conditioning stimulus (CS). CPM has been proposed to reflect inter-individual differences in endogenous pain modulation, which may predict susceptibility for acute and chronic pain. Here, we aimed to estimate the relative variance in CPM explained by inter-individual differences compared to age, sex, and CS physical and pain intensity. We constructed linear and mixed effect models on pooled data from 171 participants of several studies, of which 97 had repeated measures. Cross-sectional analyses showed no significant effect of age, sex or CS intensity. Repeated measures analyses revealed a significant effect of CS physical intensity (p = 0.002) but not CS pain intensity (p = 0.159). Variance decomposition showed that inter-individual differences accounted for 24% to 34% of the variance in CPM while age, sex, and CS intensity together explained <3% to 12%. In conclusion, the variance in CPM explained by inter-individual differences largely exceeds that of commonly considered factors such as age, sex and CS intensity. This may explain why predictive capability of these factors has had conflicting results and suggests that future models investigating them should account for inter-individual differences. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Endogenous Analgesia: Methodological Aspects and Clinical Application)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-2
Back to TopTop