Psychophysiological responses to visceral and somatic pain in functional chest pain identify clinically relevant pain clusters

A.D. Farmer, S.J. Coen, M. Kano, H. Naqvi, P.A. Paine, S.M. Scott, P.L. Furlong, S.L. Lightman, C.H. Knowles, Q Aziz

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Background: Despite chronic pain being a feature of functional chest pain (FCP) its experience is variable. The factors responsible for this variability remain unresolved. We aimed to address these knowledge gaps, hypothesizing that the psychophysiological profiles of FCP patients will be distinct from healthy subjects. Methods: 20 Rome III defined FCP patients (nine males, mean age 38.7 years, range 28-59 years) and 20 healthy age-, sex-, and ethnicity-matched controls (nine males, mean 38.2 years, range 24-49) had anxiety, depression, and personality traits measured. Subjects had sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system parameters measured at baseline and continuously thereafter. Subjects received standardized somatic (nail bed pressure) and visceral (esophageal balloon distension) stimuli to pain tolerance. Venous blood was sampled for cortisol at baseline, post somatic pain and post visceral pain. Key Results: Patients had higher neuroticism, state and trait anxiety, and depression scores but lower extroversion scores vs controls (all p < 0.005). Patients tolerated less somatic (p < 0.0001) and visceral stimulus (p = 0.009) and had a higher cortisol at baseline, and following pain (all p < 0.001). At baseline, patients had a higher sympathetic tone (p = 0.04), whereas in response to pain they increased their parasympathetic tone (p ≤ 0.008). The amalgamating the data, we identified two psychophysiologically distinct 'pain clusters'. Patients were overrepresented in the cluster characterized by high neuroticism, trait anxiety, baseline cortisol, pain hypersensitivity, and parasympathetic response to pain (all p < 0.03). Conclusions & Inferences: In future, such delineations in FCP populations may facilitate individualization of treatment based on psychophysiological profiling.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)139-148
Number of pages10
JournalNeurogastroenterology and Motility
Volume26
Issue number1
Early online date18 Oct 2013
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 13 Dec 2013

Bibliographical note

This research/ADF was funded by a Medical Research Council project grant. QA was principal investigator for Medical Research Council grant no. MGAB1A1R.

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Farmer, A. D., Coen, S. J., Kano, M., Naqvi, H., Paine, P. A., Scott, S. M., Furlong, P. L., Lightman, S. L., Knowles, C. H., & Aziz, Q. (2014). Psychophysiological responses to visceral and somatic pain in functional chest pain identify clinically relevant pain clusters. Neurogastroenterology and motility, 26(1), 139-148., which has been published in final form at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nmo.12245. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.

Keywords

  • Functional chest pain of presumed esophageal origin
  • pain clusters
  • pathophysiology

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Psychophysiological responses to visceral and somatic pain in functional chest pain identify clinically relevant pain clusters'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this