PAIN®Pub Date : 2025-10-01Epub Date: 2025-05-06DOI: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000003629
Richard J Berwick, Peyman Sahbaie, Grace Kenny, Tian-Zhi Guo, Harvey Neiland, David A Andersson, J David Clark, Patrick Mallon, Andreas Goebel
{"title":"Postacute COVID-19 syndrome and fibromyalgia syndrome are associated with anti-satellite glial cell IgG serum autoantibodies but only fibromyalgia syndrome serum-IgG is pronociceptive.","authors":"Richard J Berwick, Peyman Sahbaie, Grace Kenny, Tian-Zhi Guo, Harvey Neiland, David A Andersson, J David Clark, Patrick Mallon, Andreas Goebel","doi":"10.1097/j.pain.0000000000003629","DOIUrl":"10.1097/j.pain.0000000000003629","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Abstract: </strong>Postacute COVID-19 syndrome (PACS) describes the persistence of symptoms following severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 clearance. PACS is sometimes associated with pain and fatigue resembling fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS). Severe FMS has recently been associated with pronociceptive immunoglobulin G (IgG) autoantibodies and anti-satellite glial cell (SGC) IgG autoreactivity, suggesting an autoimmune aetiology. We validated FMS-IgG passive transfer and then tested the hypothesis that PACS-patients, with high musculoskeletal pain and fatigue, harbour proalgesic and anti-SGC autoantibodies. PACS-patients with high pain and fatigue or people recently recovered from acute COVID-19 were recruited to the All-Ireland Infectious Diseases Study. We pooled serum from 18 patients per group and purified their serum-IgG. In addition, we obtained IgG from UK patients with FMS and healthy controls to confirm assay performance. Passive transfer experiments of IgG (8 mg/d) over 3 days were conducted using male (C57BL/6J) mice (n = 6 mice per group). We measured mechanical and cold hypersensitivities and grip strength. Injection of FMS-IgG elicited the previously described mouse phenotype in male rodents, including increased mechanical/cold hypersensitivities and reduced grip strength compared with control IgG, whereas pooled PACS-IgG was inert. Immunocytochemistry of primary-SGC-enriched cultures reproduced the increased staining of FMS-IgG over the control reported previously. Both IgG from patients with PACS and those recently recovered from COVID-19 stained strongly positive. We confirm the pronociceptive properties of FMS-IgG and demonstrate, in contrast, that PACS symptoms from our cohort, with severe pain and fatigue, are not transmissible through passive transfer to male rodents. Postacute COVID-19 syndrome pain is often localised, and stratification according to the widespread distribution of pain should be considered for future studies; recovered COVID-19 leaves a strong trace of anti-SGC autoreactivity.</p>","PeriodicalId":19921,"journal":{"name":"PAIN®","volume":" ","pages":"e397-e408"},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2025-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12444900/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144132707","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
PAIN®Pub Date : 2025-10-01Epub Date: 2025-07-09DOI: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000003724
Roni Ramon-Gonen, Yelena Granovsky, Shahar Shelly
{"title":"Reply to Hassan.","authors":"Roni Ramon-Gonen, Yelena Granovsky, Shahar Shelly","doi":"10.1097/j.pain.0000000000003724","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1097/j.pain.0000000000003724","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":19921,"journal":{"name":"PAIN®","volume":"166 10","pages":"2441-2442"},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2025-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145075872","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
PAIN®Pub Date : 2025-10-01Epub Date: 2025-08-06DOI: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000003774
Amanda C de C Williams, Michael K Nicholas
{"title":"The psychology of pain: Frank Keefe as Editor-in-Chief of PAIN 2013-2022.","authors":"Amanda C de C Williams, Michael K Nicholas","doi":"10.1097/j.pain.0000000000003774","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1097/j.pain.0000000000003774","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Abstract: </strong>Francis J. Keefe, known as Frank, was the fourth Editor-in-Chief of PAIN (2013-2023). This essay explores his work as a researcher, a teacher, a clinician, mentor, and as editor. When Frank took up his position at PAIN, he already had an international reputation as one of the leading figures in the psychology of pain, with broad research interests and several hundred high-quality and much-cited publications. He was hugely influential in the development and spread of cognitive-behavioral pain management practices and in their careful evaluation. His research articles cover the gamut of pain topics from primary to secondary chronic pain, along with pain related to procedures, and the concerns of people living with pain, as well as ways in which their interactions with partners and family members could be harnessed to enhance their lives despite persisting pain. He also displayed the rare talent of being able to explain psychological and social perspectives on pain to fellow health care professionals from all disciplines, and a respectful curiosity about more biological aspects of pain mechanisms. He has taught, mentored, inspired, and encouraged countless junior colleagues, modelling how to be a compassionate and thoughtful scientist-practitioner. He brought all these skills and strengths to PAIN, which continued to flourish under his editorship, and achieved an even stronger standing in the field of pain science.</p>","PeriodicalId":19921,"journal":{"name":"PAIN®","volume":"166 10","pages":"2205-2212"},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2025-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145075880","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
PAIN®Pub Date : 2025-10-01Epub Date: 2025-03-04DOI: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000003560
Colette Ridehalgh, Joel Fundaun, Stephen Bremner, Mara Cercignani, Soraya Koushesh, Rupert Young, Alex Novak, Jane Greening, Annina B Schmid, Andrew Dilley
{"title":"Evidence for peripheral neuroinflammation after acute whiplash.","authors":"Colette Ridehalgh, Joel Fundaun, Stephen Bremner, Mara Cercignani, Soraya Koushesh, Rupert Young, Alex Novak, Jane Greening, Annina B Schmid, Andrew Dilley","doi":"10.1097/j.pain.0000000000003560","DOIUrl":"10.1097/j.pain.0000000000003560","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Abstract: </strong>Whiplash injury is associated with high socioeconomic costs and poor prognosis. Most people are classified as having whiplash-associated disorder grade II (WADII), with neck complaints and musculoskeletal signs, in the absence of frank neurological signs. However, evidence suggests that there is a subgroup with underlying nerve involvement in WADII, such as peripheral neuroinflammation. This study aimed to investigate the presence of neuroinflammation in acute WADII using T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging of the brachial plexus, dorsal root ganglia and median nerve, and clinical surrogates of neuroinflammation: heightened nerve mechanosensitivity (HNM), raised serum inflammatory mediators, and somatosensory hyperalgesia. One hundred twenty-two WADII participants within 4 weeks of whiplash and 43 healthy controls (HCs) were recruited. Magnetic resonance imaging T2 signal ratio was increased in the C5 root of the brachial plexus and the C5-C8 dorsal root ganglia in WADII participants compared with HCs but not in the distal median nerve trunk. Fifty-five percent of WADII participants had signs of HNM. Inflammatory mediators were also raised compared with HCs, and 47% of WADII participants had somatosensory changes on quantitative sensory testing. In those WADII individuals with HNM, there was hyperalgesia to cold and pressure and an increased proportion of neuropathic pain. Many people with WADII had multiple indicators of neuroinflammation. Overall, our results present a complex phenotypic profile for acute WADII and provide evidence suggestive of peripheral neuroinflammation in a subgroup of individuals. The results suggest that there is a need to reconsider the management of people with WADII.</p>","PeriodicalId":19921,"journal":{"name":"PAIN®","volume":" ","pages":"2285-2299"},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2025-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12444895/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143543016","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
PAIN®Pub Date : 2025-10-01Epub Date: 2025-03-18DOI: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000003586
Jakub Nastaj, Jacek Skalski, Daria Nowak, Natalia Kruszyna, Przemysław Bąbel, Tibor M Szikszay, Kerstin Luedtke, Rafał Gnat, Wacław M Adamczyk
{"title":"Pain distribution can be determined by classical conditioning.","authors":"Jakub Nastaj, Jacek Skalski, Daria Nowak, Natalia Kruszyna, Przemysław Bąbel, Tibor M Szikszay, Kerstin Luedtke, Rafał Gnat, Wacław M Adamczyk","doi":"10.1097/j.pain.0000000000003586","DOIUrl":"10.1097/j.pain.0000000000003586","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Abstract: </strong>Chronic widespread pain (CWP)-as in many other clinical presentations-manifests in ongoing pain without identifiable structural cause, with pain that spreads over multiple body areas. The development and maintenance of symptoms may involve learning mechanisms. Ninety-four healthy volunteers participated in this study and were randomly distributed to 4 groups. In the classical conditioning combined with the verbal suggestion group, US- (small pain distribution) and US+ (large pain distribution) were paired with visual stimuli (CS+ and CS-), and participants were told about this association. In the verbal suggestion group, the conditioning was not performed, whereas in the classical conditioning-only group, learning was not combined with suggestion. In the control group, conditioning and suggestion did not take place. Ratings of perceived pain distribution were collected after each trial and ratings of pain intensity after each block of trials. During the testing phase, participants were exposed to electrocutaneous stimuli corresponding to only the small (US-) pain distribution. The results showed significant differences between CS+ and CS- pain distribution ratings across the experimental groups: conditioning + verbal suggestion ( P < 0.01), conditioning-only group ( P < 0.05), and verbal suggestion-only group ( P < 0.05), but not in the control group ( P > 0.05). Furthermore, significant differences in the perceived pain distribution were found between the control group and all experimental groups. This result supports our main hypothesis that the perceived pain distribution can be influenced by classical conditioning as well as verbal suggestion, although the effect is stronger when both are combined.</p>","PeriodicalId":19921,"journal":{"name":"PAIN®","volume":" ","pages":"2300-2309"},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2025-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12444901/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143658134","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
PAIN®Pub Date : 2025-10-01Epub Date: 2025-07-08DOI: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000003732
Ajay D Wasan, Brian O'Connell, Rebecca DeSensi, Cheryl Bernstein, Elizabeth Pickle, Michael Zemaitis, Oren Levy, Gregory F Cooper, Antoine Douaihy
{"title":"Reply to Rich and Kollas.","authors":"Ajay D Wasan, Brian O'Connell, Rebecca DeSensi, Cheryl Bernstein, Elizabeth Pickle, Michael Zemaitis, Oren Levy, Gregory F Cooper, Antoine Douaihy","doi":"10.1097/j.pain.0000000000003732","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1097/j.pain.0000000000003732","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":19921,"journal":{"name":"PAIN®","volume":"166 10","pages":"2440"},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2025-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145075799","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
PAIN®Pub Date : 2025-10-01Epub Date: 2025-04-29DOI: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000003603
Asbjørn Mohr Drewes
{"title":"Unraveling the puzzle of pain in pancreatic diseases.","authors":"Asbjørn Mohr Drewes","doi":"10.1097/j.pain.0000000000003603","DOIUrl":"10.1097/j.pain.0000000000003603","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":19921,"journal":{"name":"PAIN®","volume":" ","pages":"2199-2200"},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2025-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144023072","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}