Differences in Pain Processing Between Men and Women

Balgrist University Hospital

Status: Completed

Conditions: Central Sensitisation

Treatments: Other: Cutaneous thermal stimuli

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05031286

NWR

Details and patient eligibility

About

Many chronic pain conditions show clear differences between between men and women, such as reported pain intensities or treatment effects, with chronic pain conditions being generally more frequent in women. Yet, the underlying mechanisms causing these differences are poorly understood. Central sensitization (CS) is considered one important mechanism in pain patients which differs between female and male patients. The central hypothesis is that already in the healthy population CS processes are more pronounced in women than in men.

Enrollment: 66 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 40 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• good general health
• able to give informed consent

Exclusion criteria

• pain complaints for more than two consecutive days over the past three months
• any major medical or psychiatric condition (e.g. heart disease, major depressive disorder)
• any chronic pain condition
• inability to follow study instructions
• consumption of stimulants, drugs, or analgesics within the past 24 hours
• scar tissue or generally reduced sensitivity in the designated testing site areas

Trial design

Primary purpose: Basic Science

Allocation: N/A

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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66 participants in 1 patient group

Experimental Arm

Experimental group

Treatment:

Other: Cutaneous thermal stimuli