Pain

Dysmenorrhea is a common chronic pelvic pain syndrome affecting women of childbearing potential. Family studies suggest that genetic background influences the severity of dysmenorrhea, but genetic predisposition and molecular mechanisms und…

Fear and avoidance have been consistently associated with poor pain-related outcomes in children. In the context of the pediatric pain experience, parent distress and behaviors can be highly influential. This study validated the Parent Fear…

Endometriosis is a disease characterized by the growth of endometrial tissue outside the uterus and is associated with chronic pelvic pain. Peritoneal fluid (PF) of women with endometriosis is a dynamic milieu and is rich in inflammatory ma…

Moderate to severe chronic pain is a problem for 1.7 million children, costing $19.5 billion dollars annually in the United States alone. Risk-stratified care is known to improve outcomes in adults with chronic pain. However, no tool exists…

Altered resting-state (RS) brain activity, as a measure of functional connectivity (FC), is commonly observed in chronic pain. Identifying a reliable signature pattern of altered RS activity for chronic pain could provide strong mechanistic…

The effects of ultramicronized palmitoylethanolamide were evaluated on pain behaviours and markers of mast cell (MC) activity in a rat model of endometriosis plus ureteral calculosis (ENDO+STONE)-induced viscerovisceral hyperalgesia (VVH). …

Most chronic noncancer pain (CNCP) conditions are more common in women and have been reported to worsen, particularly during the peak reproductive years. This phenomenon suggests that ovarian hormones might play a role in modulating CNCP pa…

Neuroimaging studies have shown that changes in brain morphology often accompany chronic pain conditions. However, brain biomarkers that are sensitive and specific to chronic pelvic pain (CPP) have not yet been adequately identified. Using …

Endometriosis, the most common cause of chronic pelvic pain, is an estrogen-dependent disease in which classic estrogen receptors (ERα, ERβ) play an important role. Although recent evidence suggests that the novel G protein-coupled estrogen…

Understanding the molecular mechanisms associated with disease is a central goal of modern medical research. As such, many thousands of experiments have been published that detail individual molecular events that contribute to a disease. He…

Endometriosis-associated chronic pelvic pain (EACPP) presents with an intense inflammatory reaction. Melatonin has emerged as an important analgesic, antioxidant, and antiinflammatory agent. This trial investigates the effects of melatonin …

The nociceptive transmission under pathological chronic pain conditions involves transcriptional and/or translational alteration in spinal neurotransmitters, receptor expressions, and modification of neuronal functions. Studies indicate the…

Pain hypersensitivity has been consistently detected in chronic pain conditions, but the underlying mechanisms are difficult to investigate in humans and thus poorly understood. Patients with endometriosis pain display enlarged reflex recep…

Sex differences in pain sensitivity have been consistently found, but the basis for these differences is incompletely understood. The present study assessed how pain-related neural processing varies across the menstrual cycle in normally cy…

Chronic pelvic pain (CPP) is a highly prevalent pain condition, estimated to affect 15%-20% of women in the United States. Endometriosis is often associated with CPP, however, other factors, such as preexisting or concomitant changes of the…

Nociceptor inputs can trigger a prolonged but reversible increase in the excitability and synaptic efficacy of neurons in central nociceptive pathways, the phenomenon of central sensitization. Central sensitization manifests as pain hyperse…

Recent studies have shown that leptin (an adipocytokine) played an important role in nociceptive behavior induced by nerve injury, but the cellular mechanism of this action remains unclear. Using the whole-cell patch-clamp recording from ra…

Endometriosis is a disease common in women that is defined by abnormal extrauteral growths of uterine endometrial tissue and associated with severe pain. Partly because how the abnormal growths become associated with pain is poorly understo…

Pancreatic pain resulting from chronic inflammation of the pancreas is often intractable and clinically difficult to manage with available analgesics reflecting the need for more effective therapies. The mechanisms underlying pancreatitis p…

Co-existing algogenic conditions in two internal organs in the same patient may mutually enhance pain symptoms (viscero-visceral hyperalgesia). The present study assessed this phenomenon in different models of visceral interaction. In a pro…

Endometriosis is a painful disorder defined by extrauteral endometrial growths whose contribution to pain symptoms is poorly understood. Endometriosis is created in rats by autotransplanting on abdominal arteries pieces of either uterus (EN…

Endometriosis (ENDO) is a painful disorder defined by extrauteral endometrial growths. It is created in rats by autotransplanting pieces of uterus (which form cysts), or, for shamENDO, fat (no cysts). ENDO induces vaginal hyperalgesia, like…