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Papers of the Week


Papers: 22 Jun 2019 - 28 Jun 2019

RESEARCH TYPE:
Psychology


Animal Studies


2019 Aug-Dec


Neurobiol Pain


6

In search of a rodent model of placebo analgesia in chronic orofacial neuropathic pain.

Authors

Akintola T, Tricou C, Raver C, Castro A, Colloca L, Keller A
Neurobiol Pain. 2019 Aug-Dec; 6:100033.
PMID: 31223137.

Abstract

All treatments are given in a context, suggesting that conditioning cues may significantly influence therapeutic outcomes. We tested the hypothesis that context affects placebo analgesia in rodents. To produce neuropathic pain in rats, we performed chronic constriction injury of the infraorbital nerve. We then treated the rats daily, over a seven day period, with injections of either fentanyl or saline, with or without associated conditioning cues; a fourth group received no treatment. On the eighth day, we replaced fentanyl with saline to test for conditioned placebo analgesia. We tested the effects of treatment by measuring sensitivity to mechanical stimuli and grimace scale scores. We found no significant differences in either of these outcomes among the four experimental groups. These findings suggest that chronic, neuropathic pain in rats may not be susceptible to placebo analgesia.