Browsing by Author "Khallouf, Amira Buz"
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- True and error variance: Assessing the sources of variability in experimental pain and its relations with pain sensitivity and pain modulationPublication . Khallouf, Amira Buz; Canaipa, Rita Isabel MangericoClinical pain trials mostly fail due to the difficulty of reporting pain in a manner consistent with the real experiences of pain. Focused Analgesia Selection Test (FAST) assess pain reporting accuracy. The first studies developed were encouraging, but more are needed to investigate its relations with other pain mechanisms. Fibromyalgia (FM), a chronic pain condition with impaired pain descending modulatory system and larger pain variability, offers an interesting model to investigate the relations between these mechanisms. The aim of this study was to investigate if there are relations between the experimental pain variability and pain sensitivity and modulation in FM. 29 FM underwent an experimental pain protocol applying different pain modalities (electrical, thermal, pressure) and assessing pain sensitivity (threshold, tolerance), modulation (Electrical Temporal Summation and Conditioned Pain Modulation) and experimental pain variability (FAST). Information related to symptoms and psychological characteristics was also collected. Patients revealed high pain sensitivity and impaired functioning of the descending modulatory system. There were no consistent relations between FAST and sensitivity. Most importantly, there were no relations between experimental pain variability and pain modulation mechanisms. FAST is a promising tool to assess experimental pain variability, accounting for error variance in the pain reporting skills. It may provide evidences on the efficacy of new treatments by detecting the significant changes in pain.