Salivary Alpha-Amylase Correlates with Subjective Heat Pain Perception

Pain Medicine : the Official Journal of the American Academy of Pain Medicine
Amrei WittwerGerd Folkers

Abstract

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. 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. Twenty-seven healthy volunteers were recruited for this study. 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. 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-amy...Continue Reading

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Citations

Apr 11, 2020·International Journal of Molecular Sciences·Hajer JasimBijar Ghafouri
Sep 24, 2020·Diagnostics·Nikolaos ChristidisHajer Jasim

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