Percentile Normative Values of Parameters of Electrical Pain and Reflex Threshold

Scaramozzino, Pasquale; Neziri, Alban Y.; Andersen, Ole K.; Arendt-Nielsen, Lars; Curatolo, Michele

Abstract

Central hypersensitivity, defined as an increased excitability of the central nervous system, is considered as the main factor behind facilitation of central pain processes and is probably a very important factor in the induction and maintenance of chronic pain. Widespread hyposensitivity is less studied than hypersensitivity states, but recent work indicates that hypoesthesia may be present in chronic non-neuropathic pain conditions and could have negative prognostic value. Electrical pain and reflex thresholds are well established measures of central pain sensitivity in human pain research. One potential application of these assessments in clinical practice is the detection of central hyper- or hyposensitivity in individual patients. In order to identify these disturbances in the central pain processing of individual patients, knowledge of reference values is essential. We computed percentile normative values of nociceptive withdrawal reflex (NWR) and pain thresholds to different electrical stimulation paradigms. The aim was to provide reference values for the assessment of widespread central hyper- and hyposensitivity in individual patients.

Citation

Scaramozzino, P., Neziri, A. Y., Andersen, O. K., Arendt-Nielsen, L., & Curatolo, M. (2013). Percentile Normative Values of Parameters of Electrical Pain and Reflex Threshold. Scandinavian Journal of Pain, 4(2), 120-124. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sjpain.2012.09.002

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Apr 1, 2013
• Deposit Date: Apr 11, 2013
• Journal: Scandinavian Journal of Pain
• Electronic ISSN: 1877-8879
• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 4
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 120-124
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sjpain.2012.09.002