Light Touch Contact Improves Pain-Evoked Postural Instability During Quiet Standing

Abstract Objective To investigate if attention to additional sensory information from the fingertip can improve postural stability during pain, which is known to impair balance. Methods In 16 healthy volunteers, experimental pain was induced by intramuscular injection of hypertonic saline in the rig...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.) Mass.), 2018-12, Vol.19 (12), p.2487-2495
Main Authors: Hirata, Rogerio P, Christensen, Steffan W, Agger, Simone, Svindt, Mikkel, Røssner, Nicklas, Abildgaard, Jesper, Vuillerme, Nicolas, Graven-Nielsen, Thomas
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Attention
Attention - physiology
Balance
Electromyography - methods
Female
Fingers - physiology
Humans
Injection
Knee
Male
Middle Aged
Pain
Pain - physiopathology
Pain management
Posture
Posture - physiology
Pressure
Rehabilitation
Standing Position
Tactile stimuli
Touch - physiology
Velocity
Young Adult
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Abstract Objective To investigate if attention to additional sensory information from the fingertip can improve postural stability during pain, which is known to impair balance. Methods In 16 healthy volunteers, experimental pain was induced by intramuscular injection of hypertonic saline in the right vastus medialis muscle (isotonic saline used as nonpainful control, intramuscular injection in the same location). Pain intensity was assessed on an 11-point numeric rating scale (NRS; 0 representing “no pain” and 10 “maximum pain”). Subjects were asked to stand as still as possible on a force plate for 40 seconds with their eyes closed. Their postural stability was quantified by the area and velocity of center of pressure (CoP) displacement. The CoP was recorded with and without pain during two different conditions: 1) no touch and 2) the subjects were asked to lightly touch a curtain with their right index finger and focus their attention on keeping it as still as possible. Results Hypertonic injections induced higher NRS scores compared with control injections (P 
ISSN:1526-2375
1526-4637
DOI:10.1093/pm/pny015