Efficacy of Anodal Suboccipital Direct Current Stimulation for Endogenous Pain Modulation and Tonic Thermal Pain Control in Healthy Participants: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial

Abstract Objective The aim of this study was to assess whether anodal DCS applied to the suboccipital (SO) target area could potentiate antinociception assessed primarily with conditioned pain modulation of tonic thermal test stimuli. Design Randomized double-blinded control trial. Setting Rehabilit...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.) Mass.), 2021-12, Vol.22 (12), p.2908-2917
Main Authors: García-Barajas, Guillermo, Serrano-Muñoz, Diego, Gómez-Soriano, Julio, Avendaño-Coy, Juan, Fernández-Carnero, Josue, Megía García, Alvaro, Segura-Fragosa, Antonio, Taylor, Julian
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Brain stimulation
Care and treatment
Chronic pain
Clinical trials
Cold
Deep brain stimulation
Healthy Volunteers
Humans
Pain
Pain Management
Pain Measurement
Pain perception
Pain Threshold
Rehabilitation
Testing
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Summary:Abstract Objective The aim of this study was to assess whether anodal DCS applied to the suboccipital (SO) target area could potentiate antinociception assessed primarily with conditioned pain modulation of tonic thermal test stimuli. Design Randomized double-blinded control trial. Setting Rehabilitation hospital. Subjects Healthy participants. Methods Forty healthy participants were randomized to receive either SO-DCS or M1-DCS. The 20-minute 1.5 mA anodal or sham DCS intervention were applied to each participant in randomized order during two test sessions. The primary outcome measure included heterotopic cold-pressor conditioned pain modulation (CPM) of tonic heat pain. Secondary measures included pressure pain threshold and tonic thermal pain intensity. Results Heterotopic CPM of tonic heat pain intensity was unaffected by either SO-DCS or active M1, including the secondary measures of pressure pain threshold and tonic thermal pain intensity. Although low-power non-significant interactions were identified for DCS intervention (active versus sham) and time (before and after), a significant within-group inhibition of tonic cold pain was identified following SO-DCS (P = .011, mean [SD]: −0.76 ± 0.88 points) and M1-DCS (P 
ISSN:1526-2375
1526-4637
DOI:10.1093/pm/pnab125