NeuralCipher Research overview
The text below is the source article’s original abstract under a verified reuse license. cc by
BackgroundOf patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), 30% to 85% report pain. However, mechanisms underlying this pain remain unclear. In line with known neuroanatomical impairments, we hypothesized that pain in PD is caused by alterations in emotional-motivational as opposed to sensory-discriminative pain processing and that dopamine recovers the capacity for endogenous emotional-motivational pain modulation in patients with PD.MethodsA total of 20 patients with PD played a random reward paradigm with painful heat stimuli in addition to assessments of pain sensitivity once with and once without levodopa.ResultsLevodopa increased endogenous pain inhibition in terms of perceived pain intensity and un/pleasantness compared with a medication off state. Higher clinical pain was associated with higher increases in pain inhibition. Levodopa did not affect heat pain threshold, tolerance, or temporal summation.ConclusionPatients with PD seem to be predominately impaired in emotional-motivational as opposed to sensory-discriminative pain processing. A differential understanding of pain in PD is urgently needed because effective treatment strategies are lacking. © 2020 The Authors. Movement Disorders published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.
Scientific assessment
Research question
Assess the question within the original study’s scope.
Methods & sample
Check the source article for study design and sample details.
Key findings
An editorially approved findings summary is not yet published for this record.
Limitations
Generalizability, bias and clinical meaning require separate assessment.
Methods, samples and clinical conclusions are not inferred from bibliographic metadata.