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Stress during the COVID-19 Pandemic Moderates Pain Perception and Momentary Oxytocin Levels

Self-reported pain levels have been associated with increased stress levels during the COVID-19 pandemic. Less is known about the long-term effects of stress on individuals’ physical and emotional pain levels and their associations with the neuropeptide hormone oxytocin. We aimed to predict momentar...

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Autores principales: Schneider, Ekaterina, Hopf, Dora, Eckstein, Monika, Scheele, Dirk, Aguilar-Raab, Corina, Herpertz, Sabine C., Grinevich, Valery, Ditzen, Beate
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10056494/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36983333
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jcm12062333
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author Schneider, Ekaterina
Hopf, Dora
Eckstein, Monika
Scheele, Dirk
Aguilar-Raab, Corina
Herpertz, Sabine C.
Grinevich, Valery
Ditzen, Beate
author_facet Schneider, Ekaterina
Hopf, Dora
Eckstein, Monika
Scheele, Dirk
Aguilar-Raab, Corina
Herpertz, Sabine C.
Grinevich, Valery
Ditzen, Beate
author_sort Schneider, Ekaterina
collection PubMed
description Self-reported pain levels have been associated with increased stress levels during the COVID-19 pandemic. Less is known about the long-term effects of stress on individuals’ physical and emotional pain levels and their associations with the neuropeptide hormone oxytocin. We aimed to predict momentary pain through individual stress levels and momentary oxytocin levels at genuinely high-stress phases, namely during COVID-related lockdowns. In a cross-sectional (n = 254) and a longitudinal (n = 196) assessment during lockdowns in Germany, participants completed a 2-day ecological momentary assessment (EMA) protocol (collecting six saliva samples on two consecutive days each and simultaneously reporting on stress, physical, and emotional pain levels) in 2020, as well as one year later, in 2021. Hierarchical linear modeling revealed significant positive associations between individuals’ stress levels and physical pain, both cross-sectionally (b = 0.017; t(103) = 3.345; p = 0.001) and longitudinally (b = 0.009; t(110) = 2.025; p = 0.045). Similarly, subjective stress ratings showed significant positive associations with emotional pain on a within-person (b = 0.014; t(63) = 3.594; p < 0.001) as well as on a between-person (b = 0.026; t(122) = 5.191; p < 0.001) level. Participants further displayed significantly lower salivary oxytocin when experiencing higher levels of emotional pain (b = −0.120; t(163) = −2.493; p = 0.014). In addition, high-stress levels significantly moderated the association between physical pain and salivary oxytocin (b = −0.012; t(32) = −2.150; p = 0.039). Based on mechanistic and experimental research, oxytocinergic mechanisms have long been suggested to modulate pain experiences, however, this has not yet been investigated in everyday life. Our data, which was collected from a large sample experiencing continued stress, in this case, during the COVID-19 pandemic, suggests that individuals experience more intense physical pain and elevated stress levels, as shown by particularly low salivary oxytocin concentrations.
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spelling pubmed-100564942023-03-30 Stress during the COVID-19 Pandemic Moderates Pain Perception and Momentary Oxytocin Levels Schneider, Ekaterina Hopf, Dora Eckstein, Monika Scheele, Dirk Aguilar-Raab, Corina Herpertz, Sabine C. Grinevich, Valery Ditzen, Beate J Clin Med Article Self-reported pain levels have been associated with increased stress levels during the COVID-19 pandemic. Less is known about the long-term effects of stress on individuals’ physical and emotional pain levels and their associations with the neuropeptide hormone oxytocin. We aimed to predict momentary pain through individual stress levels and momentary oxytocin levels at genuinely high-stress phases, namely during COVID-related lockdowns. In a cross-sectional (n = 254) and a longitudinal (n = 196) assessment during lockdowns in Germany, participants completed a 2-day ecological momentary assessment (EMA) protocol (collecting six saliva samples on two consecutive days each and simultaneously reporting on stress, physical, and emotional pain levels) in 2020, as well as one year later, in 2021. Hierarchical linear modeling revealed significant positive associations between individuals’ stress levels and physical pain, both cross-sectionally (b = 0.017; t(103) = 3.345; p = 0.001) and longitudinally (b = 0.009; t(110) = 2.025; p = 0.045). Similarly, subjective stress ratings showed significant positive associations with emotional pain on a within-person (b = 0.014; t(63) = 3.594; p < 0.001) as well as on a between-person (b = 0.026; t(122) = 5.191; p < 0.001) level. Participants further displayed significantly lower salivary oxytocin when experiencing higher levels of emotional pain (b = −0.120; t(163) = −2.493; p = 0.014). In addition, high-stress levels significantly moderated the association between physical pain and salivary oxytocin (b = −0.012; t(32) = −2.150; p = 0.039). Based on mechanistic and experimental research, oxytocinergic mechanisms have long been suggested to modulate pain experiences, however, this has not yet been investigated in everyday life. Our data, which was collected from a large sample experiencing continued stress, in this case, during the COVID-19 pandemic, suggests that individuals experience more intense physical pain and elevated stress levels, as shown by particularly low salivary oxytocin concentrations. MDPI 2023-03-16 /pmc/articles/PMC10056494/ /pubmed/36983333 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jcm12062333 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Schneider, Ekaterina
Hopf, Dora
Eckstein, Monika
Scheele, Dirk
Aguilar-Raab, Corina
Herpertz, Sabine C.
Grinevich, Valery
Ditzen, Beate
Stress during the COVID-19 Pandemic Moderates Pain Perception and Momentary Oxytocin Levels
title Stress during the COVID-19 Pandemic Moderates Pain Perception and Momentary Oxytocin Levels
title_full Stress during the COVID-19 Pandemic Moderates Pain Perception and Momentary Oxytocin Levels
title_fullStr Stress during the COVID-19 Pandemic Moderates Pain Perception and Momentary Oxytocin Levels
title_full_unstemmed Stress during the COVID-19 Pandemic Moderates Pain Perception and Momentary Oxytocin Levels
title_short Stress during the COVID-19 Pandemic Moderates Pain Perception and Momentary Oxytocin Levels
title_sort stress during the covid-19 pandemic moderates pain perception and momentary oxytocin levels
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10056494/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36983333
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jcm12062333
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