Salivary Alpha-Amylase Correlates with Subjective Heat Pain Perception.
- Wittwer A *Collegium Helveticum, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland wittwer@collegium.ethz.ch.
- Krummenacher P *Collegium Helveticum, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland Brainability LLC, Zurich, Switzerland Department of Psychology, Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
- La Marca R University of Zurich, Institute of Psychology, Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Zurich, Switzerland.
- Ehlert U University of Zurich, Institute of Psychology, Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Zurich, Switzerland.
- Folkers G *Collegium Helveticum, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
- 2016-01-15
Published in:
- Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.). - 2016
External
Nonverbal
Pain-Assessment
Salivary Alpha-Amylase
Stress
Adult
Biomarkers
Female
Hot Temperature
Humans
Male
Pain Measurement
Pain Perception
Salivary alpha-Amylases
English
OBJECTIVE
Self-reports of pain are important for an adequate therapy. This is a problem with patients and infants who are restricted in providing an accurate verbal estimation of their pain. Reliable, real-time, economical, and non-invasive physiological correlates might contribute to a more comprehensive description of pain. Salivary alpha-amylase constitutes one candidate biomarker, which reflects predominantly sympathetic nervous system alterations under stressful conditions and can be measured non-invasively. The current study investigated the effects of acute heat pain on salivary alpha-amylase activity.
METHODS
Heat pain tolerance was measured on the non-dominant forearm. Participants completed visual analog scales on pain intensity and unpleasantness. Saliva samples were collected directly after pain induction.
SUBJECTS
Twenty-seven healthy volunteers were recruited for this study.
RESULTS
While salivary alpha-amylase levels correlated positively with intensity and unpleasantness ratings in response to acute heat pain stimuli, there was no corresponding association with pain tolerance.
CONCLUSIONS
Salivary alpha-amylase is suggested to be an indirect physiologic correlate of subjective heat pain perception. Future studies should address the role of salivary alpha-amylase depending on the origin of pain, the concerned tissue, and other pain assessment methods.
Self-reports of pain are important for an adequate therapy. This is a problem with patients and infants who are restricted in providing an accurate verbal estimation of their pain. Reliable, real-time, economical, and non-invasive physiological correlates might contribute to a more comprehensive description of pain. Salivary alpha-amylase constitutes one candidate biomarker, which reflects predominantly sympathetic nervous system alterations under stressful conditions and can be measured non-invasively. The current study investigated the effects of acute heat pain on salivary alpha-amylase activity.
METHODS
Heat pain tolerance was measured on the non-dominant forearm. Participants completed visual analog scales on pain intensity and unpleasantness. Saliva samples were collected directly after pain induction.
SUBJECTS
Twenty-seven healthy volunteers were recruited for this study.
RESULTS
While salivary alpha-amylase levels correlated positively with intensity and unpleasantness ratings in response to acute heat pain stimuli, there was no corresponding association with pain tolerance.
CONCLUSIONS
Salivary alpha-amylase is suggested to be an indirect physiologic correlate of subjective heat pain perception. Future studies should address the role of salivary alpha-amylase depending on the origin of pain, the concerned tissue, and other pain assessment methods.
- Language
-
- English
- Open access status
- bronze
- Identifiers
-
- DOI 10.1093/pm/pnv085
- PMID 26764337
- Persistent URL
- https://sonar.ch/global/documents/153497
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