Visually induced analgesia in a deep tissue experimental pain model: A randomised crossover experiment

© 2018 European Pain Federation - EFIC®. Background: Visualizing one's own painful body part appears to have an effect on reported pain intensity. Furthermore, it seems that manipulating the size of the viewed image can determine the direction and extent of this phenomenon. When visual distorti...

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Main Authors: van Selm, M., Gibson, W., Travers, Merv, Moseley, G., Hince, D., Wand, B.
Format: Journal Article
Published: John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 2018
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/69250
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author van Selm, M.
Gibson, W.
Travers, Merv
Moseley, G.
Hince, D.
Wand, B.
author_facet van Selm, M.
Gibson, W.
Travers, Merv
Moseley, G.
Hince, D.
Wand, B.
author_sort van Selm, M.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description © 2018 European Pain Federation - EFIC®. Background: Visualizing one's own painful body part appears to have an effect on reported pain intensity. Furthermore, it seems that manipulating the size of the viewed image can determine the direction and extent of this phenomenon. When visual distortion has been applied to clinical populations, the analgesic effects have been in opposition to those observed in some experimental pain models. To help resolve this problem, we explored the effect of visualisation and magnification of the visual image on reported pain using a delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) pain model. Methods: We induced DOMS in the quadriceps of 20 healthy volunteers. Forty-eight hours later, participants performed a series of painful contractions of the DOMS-affected muscle under four randomised conditions: (1) Viewing the injured thigh; (2) Viewing the contralateral thigh; (3) Viewing a neutral object; and (4) Viewing the injured thigh through magnifying glasses. For each condition, participants rated their pain intensity during a series of painful contractions. Results: We observed that direct visualisation of the injured thigh had no effect on pain intensity when compared to viewing the contralateral thigh or neutral object. However, magnification of the DOMS-affected leg during the performance of painful contractions caused participants to report more pain than when viewing the injured thigh normally. Conclusions: These results further demonstrate that the effect of visualisation varies between different pain conditions. These results may have implications for the integration of visual feedback into clinical practice. Significance: We present delayed onset muscle soreness as a model for exploring visually induced analgesia. Our findings suggest that this phenomenon is expressed differently in exogenous and endogenous experimental pain models. Further exploration may offer a potential pathway for the integration of visual analgesia into the management of clinical pain.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-692502018-06-29T12:35:48Z Visually induced analgesia in a deep tissue experimental pain model: A randomised crossover experiment van Selm, M. Gibson, W. Travers, Merv Moseley, G. Hince, D. Wand, B. © 2018 European Pain Federation - EFIC®. Background: Visualizing one's own painful body part appears to have an effect on reported pain intensity. Furthermore, it seems that manipulating the size of the viewed image can determine the direction and extent of this phenomenon. When visual distortion has been applied to clinical populations, the analgesic effects have been in opposition to those observed in some experimental pain models. To help resolve this problem, we explored the effect of visualisation and magnification of the visual image on reported pain using a delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) pain model. Methods: We induced DOMS in the quadriceps of 20 healthy volunteers. Forty-eight hours later, participants performed a series of painful contractions of the DOMS-affected muscle under four randomised conditions: (1) Viewing the injured thigh; (2) Viewing the contralateral thigh; (3) Viewing a neutral object; and (4) Viewing the injured thigh through magnifying glasses. For each condition, participants rated their pain intensity during a series of painful contractions. Results: We observed that direct visualisation of the injured thigh had no effect on pain intensity when compared to viewing the contralateral thigh or neutral object. However, magnification of the DOMS-affected leg during the performance of painful contractions caused participants to report more pain than when viewing the injured thigh normally. Conclusions: These results further demonstrate that the effect of visualisation varies between different pain conditions. These results may have implications for the integration of visual feedback into clinical practice. Significance: We present delayed onset muscle soreness as a model for exploring visually induced analgesia. Our findings suggest that this phenomenon is expressed differently in exogenous and endogenous experimental pain models. Further exploration may offer a potential pathway for the integration of visual analgesia into the management of clinical pain. 2018 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/69250 10.1002/ejp.1234 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. restricted
spellingShingle van Selm, M.
Gibson, W.
Travers, Merv
Moseley, G.
Hince, D.
Wand, B.
Visually induced analgesia in a deep tissue experimental pain model: A randomised crossover experiment
title Visually induced analgesia in a deep tissue experimental pain model: A randomised crossover experiment
title_full Visually induced analgesia in a deep tissue experimental pain model: A randomised crossover experiment
title_fullStr Visually induced analgesia in a deep tissue experimental pain model: A randomised crossover experiment
title_full_unstemmed Visually induced analgesia in a deep tissue experimental pain model: A randomised crossover experiment
title_short Visually induced analgesia in a deep tissue experimental pain model: A randomised crossover experiment
title_sort visually induced analgesia in a deep tissue experimental pain model: a randomised crossover experiment
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/69250