The Differing Effects of Nociception and Pain Memory on Pain Thresholds in Participants with and without a History of Injury: A Pretest-Posttest Quasi Experimental Study

Abstract

Purpose: Memory has been identified as an important protective feature to prevent future injury, but its role has yet to be ascertained. The current study aimed to determine whether there was a difference in pressure pain threshold (PPT) responses between participants with a prior history of injury of lower extremity injury (PSI) and those without (NPSI) when exposed to 1) experimental mechanical pain, 2) short-term memory recall of a painful stimulus, or 3) long-term memory of the pain associated with a prior injury. Subjects and Methods: The study used a pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design. A convenience sample of 59 pain-free participants was recruited from an urban university. Twenty-nine PSI and 30 NPSI were stratified into two groups based on their injury history with PPT values measured at baseline and immediately following each of the three experimental conditions. A repeated measure ANCOVA analysis was conducted for each condition to determine whether there was a difference in PPT responses between the two groups. Results: There was a statistically significant difference in PPT values between the two groups when exposed to experimental pain, F(1,57) = 6.010, p = 0.017, partial η2 = 0.095 and with long-term pain memory, F(1,57) = 4.886, p = 0.031, partial η2 = 0.079. There was no statistically significant difference between groups with short-term pain memory, F(1,57) = 3.925, p = 0.052, partial η2 = 0.064. Conclusions: These findings suggest that pain processing may be altered by pain memory, highlighting the role of experience and memory in the rehabilitation process.