The association between childhood maltreatment and pain sensitivity in a high-risk adolescent population

Abstract

The risk of developing chronic pain is twice as high among people with a history of childhood maltreatment compared to those without these experiences. It is unclear, however, whether childhood maltreatment might lead to lower or higher perception of pain. In this paper, we investigate the association between childhood maltreatment and pain sensitivity. A sample of 187 Dutch adolescents (ages 16.7 to 20.5) was used from a population-based cohort at high-risk for emotional and behavioral problems screened at age 13. The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire short form (CTQ-SF) was completed to measure emotional, physical, sexual abuse, and emotional and physical neglect. To asses pain sensitivity, a thermal quantitative sensory testing procedure was used which measured pain from hot and cold stimuli. Individuals reporting childhood sexual abuse, emotional abuse or neglect and physical neglect could on average withstand hot and cold pain of 1.03 °C [0.13, 1.84] to 3.20 °C [0.62, 5.97] more across different types of abuse compared to those with no emotional abuse or (physical) neglect history. Physical abuse was not associated with pain sensitivity. The current findings suggest that childhood maltreatment might lead to habituation to painful stimuli as opposed to increased pain sensitivity.