Abstract
Endogenous pain inhibition is often deficient in adults with chronic pain conditions
including irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). It is unclear whether deficiencies in pain
inhibition are present in young children with IBS. The present study compared endogenous
pain inhibition, somatic pain threshold, and psychosocial distress in young girls
with IBS versus controls. Girls with IBS did not show significant endogenous pain
inhibition of heat pain threshold during a cold-pressor task in contrast to controls,
who had significant pain inhibition. Girls with IBS did not differ from peers on measures
of somatic pain but had more symptoms of depression, somatization, and anxiety than
controls. When psychological variables were included as covariates, the difference
in pain inhibition was no longer significant, although poor achieved power limits
interpretation of these results. Higher-order cognitive processes including psychological
variables may be contributing to observed pain inhibition. In girls with IBS, pain
inhibition was positively related to the number of days without a bowel movement.
To our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate deficiencies of endogenous
pain inhibition in young children with IBS. Findings have implications for better
understanding of onset and maintenance of IBS and other chronic pain conditions.
Perspective
This study found that young girls with IBS have deficient endogenous pain inhibition
compared to healthy girls, which is consistent with the literature on adults. This
information can facilitate clinicians in identification of risk factors for onset/maintenance
of IBS and other chronic pain conditions.
Key words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: May 20, 2013
Accepted:
March 11,
2013
Received in revised form:
February 27,
2013
Received:
December 4,
2012
Footnotes
This research was supported by Grant RC2 NR011959 to M.H. and R.J.S. and Grant R01 NR05337 to R.J.S. from the National Institutes of Health, the Daffy's Foundation, the USDA/ARS under Cooperative Agreement No. 6250-51000-043, and P30-DK56338, which funds the Texas Medical Center Digestive Disease Center. This work is in collaboration with the USDA/ARS Children's Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, and Texas Children's Hospital, Houston, TX, and does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the USDA, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the US Government.
The authors have no conflicts of interest financial or otherwise, related to this study.
Supplementary data accompanying this article are available online at www.jpain.org and www.sciencedirect.com.
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© 2013 American Pain Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
