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Oxytocin and positive couple interaction affect the perception of wound pain in everyday life

A large body of animal and human laboratory research has linked social interaction and support to pain perception, with a possible role for the neuropeptide oxytocin as a neuroendocrine mediator. However so far, it has been unclear whether these effects translate to ecologically valid everyday life...

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Autores principales: Pfeifer, Ann-Christin, Schroeder-Pfeifer, Paul, Schneider, Ekaterina, Schick, Maren, Heinrichs, Markus, Bodenmann, Guy, Ehlert, Ulrike, Herpertz, Sabine C., Läuchli, Severin, Eckstein, Monika, Ditzen, Beate
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: SAGE Publications 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7171986/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32308117
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1744806920918692
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author Pfeifer, Ann-Christin
Schroeder-Pfeifer, Paul
Schneider, Ekaterina
Schick, Maren
Heinrichs, Markus
Bodenmann, Guy
Ehlert, Ulrike
Herpertz, Sabine C.
Läuchli, Severin
Eckstein, Monika
Ditzen, Beate
author_facet Pfeifer, Ann-Christin
Schroeder-Pfeifer, Paul
Schneider, Ekaterina
Schick, Maren
Heinrichs, Markus
Bodenmann, Guy
Ehlert, Ulrike
Herpertz, Sabine C.
Läuchli, Severin
Eckstein, Monika
Ditzen, Beate
author_sort Pfeifer, Ann-Christin
collection PubMed
description A large body of animal and human laboratory research has linked social interaction and support to pain perception, with a possible role for the neuropeptide oxytocin as a neuroendocrine mediator. However so far, it has been unclear whether these effects translate to ecologically valid everyday life behavior and pain perception. In a randomized placebo-controlled study, a standard suction blister skin wound was induced to N = 80 romantic couples (N = 160 individuals). Couples then received intranasal oxytocin or placebo twice daily and were either instructed to perform a positive social interaction (partner appraisal task, PAT) once in the laboratory and two times during the following five days, or not. During these days, all participants reported their subjective pain levels multiple times a day using ecologically momentary assessment. Results from hierarchical linear modeling suggest that pain levels within the couples were inter-related. In men, but not in women, oxytocin reduced pain levels. Women reported lower pain levels in the group of positive social interaction, while this effect did not show in men. These results suggest that intranasal oxytocin might have sex-specific effects with pain reducing effects in men but the opposite effects in women. In contrast, especially women benefit from positive interaction in terms of dampened pain levels after positive interaction. The results add to the evidence for health-beneficial effects of positive couple interaction and point to underlying neuroendocrine mechanisms in everyday life pain specifically. The sex-specific effects, in particular, may have implications for psychopharmacological treatment of pain in men and women.
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spelling pubmed-71719862020-04-27 Oxytocin and positive couple interaction affect the perception of wound pain in everyday life Pfeifer, Ann-Christin Schroeder-Pfeifer, Paul Schneider, Ekaterina Schick, Maren Heinrichs, Markus Bodenmann, Guy Ehlert, Ulrike Herpertz, Sabine C. Läuchli, Severin Eckstein, Monika Ditzen, Beate Mol Pain Research Article A large body of animal and human laboratory research has linked social interaction and support to pain perception, with a possible role for the neuropeptide oxytocin as a neuroendocrine mediator. However so far, it has been unclear whether these effects translate to ecologically valid everyday life behavior and pain perception. In a randomized placebo-controlled study, a standard suction blister skin wound was induced to N = 80 romantic couples (N = 160 individuals). Couples then received intranasal oxytocin or placebo twice daily and were either instructed to perform a positive social interaction (partner appraisal task, PAT) once in the laboratory and two times during the following five days, or not. During these days, all participants reported their subjective pain levels multiple times a day using ecologically momentary assessment. Results from hierarchical linear modeling suggest that pain levels within the couples were inter-related. In men, but not in women, oxytocin reduced pain levels. Women reported lower pain levels in the group of positive social interaction, while this effect did not show in men. These results suggest that intranasal oxytocin might have sex-specific effects with pain reducing effects in men but the opposite effects in women. In contrast, especially women benefit from positive interaction in terms of dampened pain levels after positive interaction. The results add to the evidence for health-beneficial effects of positive couple interaction and point to underlying neuroendocrine mechanisms in everyday life pain specifically. The sex-specific effects, in particular, may have implications for psychopharmacological treatment of pain in men and women. SAGE Publications 2020-04-19 /pmc/articles/PMC7171986/ /pubmed/32308117 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1744806920918692 Text en © The Author(s) 2020 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
spellingShingle Research Article
Pfeifer, Ann-Christin
Schroeder-Pfeifer, Paul
Schneider, Ekaterina
Schick, Maren
Heinrichs, Markus
Bodenmann, Guy
Ehlert, Ulrike
Herpertz, Sabine C.
Läuchli, Severin
Eckstein, Monika
Ditzen, Beate
Oxytocin and positive couple interaction affect the perception of wound pain in everyday life
title Oxytocin and positive couple interaction affect the perception of wound pain in everyday life
title_full Oxytocin and positive couple interaction affect the perception of wound pain in everyday life
title_fullStr Oxytocin and positive couple interaction affect the perception of wound pain in everyday life
title_full_unstemmed Oxytocin and positive couple interaction affect the perception of wound pain in everyday life
title_short Oxytocin and positive couple interaction affect the perception of wound pain in everyday life
title_sort oxytocin and positive couple interaction affect the perception of wound pain in everyday life
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7171986/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32308117
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1744806920918692
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