Salivary Alpha-Amylase Correlates with Subjective Heat Pain Perception.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:

Self-reports of pain are important for an adequate therapy. This is a problem with patients and infants who are restricted in providing an accurate verbal estimation of their pain. Reliable, real-time, economical, and non-invasive physiological correlates might contribute to a more comprehensive description of pain. Salivary alpha-amylase constitutes one candidate biomarker, which reflects predominantly sympathetic nervous system alterations under stressful conditions and can be measured non-invasively. The current study investigated the effects of acute heat pain on salivary alpha-amylase activity.

METHODS:

Heat pain tolerance was measured on the non-dominant forearm. Participants completed visual analog scales on pain intensity and unpleasantness. Saliva samples were collected directly after pain induction.

SUBJECTS:

Twenty-seven healthy volunteers were recruited for this study.

RESULTS:

While salivary alpha-amylase levels correlated positively with intensity and unpleasantness ratings in response to acute heat pain stimuli, there was no corresponding association with pain tolerance.

CONCLUSIONS:

Salivary alpha-amylase is suggested to be an indirect physiologic correlate of subjective heat pain perception. Future studies should address the role of salivary alpha-amylase depending on the origin of pain, the concerned tissue, and other pain assessment methods.

• Authors: Amrei Wittwer, Peter Krummenacher, Roberto La Marca, Ulrike Ehlert, Gerd Folkers
• Journal: Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.) (Pain Med) Vol. 17 Issue 6 Pg. 1131-6 (06 2016) ISSN: 1526-4637 [Electronic] England
• PMID: 26764337 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)
• Copyright: © 2016 American Academy of Pain Medicine. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: [email protected].

Chemical References

• Biomarkers
• Salivary alpha-Amylases

Topics

• Adult
• Biomarkers (analysis)
• Female
• Hot Temperature
• Humans
• Male
• Pain Measurement (methods)
• Pain Perception (physiology)
• Salivary alpha-Amylases (analysis)