When two painful stimuli work on us at the same time, we see that neither of them is as painful. This phenomenon is part of the body’s own pain control system. Disorders of this disorder are associated with chronic pain disorders. Researchers at Berufsgenossenschaftliches Universitätsklinikum Bergmannsheil, a clinic of Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB), have developed a method for this. They were able to show that the method works effectively with both electrical stimulation of pain and heat pain. Two follow-up studies on this have been published in journals Brain sciences and BMC inexperience.
The same motivation hurts differently
The human perception of pain can vary greatly depending on the situation. So it is possible that the same pain stimulant feels more or less pain under different conditions. The body’s own pain control system is responsible for this. Researchers study this system with the research method called Fixed Pain Modeling, or CPM for short. “This records the strength of pain stimulation in hindering other pain stimulation experiences that are simultaneously demonstrated,” says Professor Dr. Oliver Höffken, a psychologist at Bergmannsheil who explain.
In the first study, the research team compared an established CPM model with a recently introduced difference. With Positioned Pain Modeling, two pain stimuli always play a part. The first stimulus, also known as the test stimulus, is administered twice: once alone and once in conjunction with the second stimulus, the situational stimulus. The test person should assess how painful the test stimulus was by itself and how it felt while the position stimulus was given.
Aim criteria
In the current work, the team led by Oliver Höffken, Dr. özüm özgül and Professor Elena Enax-Krumova compared two different test stimuli: a stimulus attempted with heat pain and a new one stimulated by electrical stimulation of the skin. In each case the cooling stimulus was generated by cold water. The electrical stimulation of the skin has a definite advantage over the heat method previously used: it allows the changes in brain activity induced by the electrical movements of the skin to be measured with the help of EEG recording. This adds a reasonably measurable criterion to the subject pain assessment of the test subjects.
Two devices with the same output
In the second study, the researchers used the previously tested CPM model of electrical stimulation of the skin and compared it to the effect of pain relief from mindfulness. They found that both the CPM method and mindfulness can reduce pain awareness to an equal degree. However, the two methods showed different results in the measurement of electrical capacities.
Based on our measurements, we assume that the two pain relief effects studied are two different methods that just lead to the same effect. “
Dr. Oliver Höffken, Associate Professor, Neurologist, Bergmannsheil
The researchers studied healthy volunteers. However, research on the body’s own pain prevention system is also relevant to better understand various pain disorders. “In patients with chronic pain, the development of postoperative pain and the transition from chronic to chronic pain, the effects of modified CPM have been previously detected. In our research group, therefore, we use the CPM model as an instrument to explore ways of processing pain information ”, explains Höffken.
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Magazine Reference:
Krumova, EE, et al. (2020) Electrical Stimulation Pain Management vs Heat Pain as a Test Stimuli in Fixed Pain Modification. Brain sciences. doi.org/10.3390/brainsci10100684.