More severe history of childhood adversity is linked to greater surface area of induced secondary hyperalgesia

Childhood adversity is linked to persistent pain in adulthood. Nociceptive upregulation may play a role in this relationship. We investigated whether childhood adversity is associated with measures of nociceptive processing, and whether these associations differ by sex. In this experimental observational study, we enrolled pain-free adults with varying severity of childhood adversity, scored on the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form. Measures of nociceptive processing included the surface area and magnitude of induced secondary hyperalgesia, temporal summation, and conditioned pain modulation. We used linear regression to investigate whether childhood adversity was associated with increased surface area or magnitude of secondary hyperalgesia, increased temporal summation, or reduced conditioned pain modulation, and whether these relationships differed by sex. Ninety-five participants (61 female; median age 23 [IQR: 9] years) completed the study. Childhood adversity was positively associated with the surface area of secondary hyperalgesia ({beta}=0.32 [95%CI: 0.01; 0.62], p = 0.04), with no evidence of an interaction effect of sex. Childhood adversity was unrelated to the magnitude of secondary hyperalgesia, temporal summation, or conditioned pain modulation. These data suggest that childhood adversity may influence the distribution rather than the magnitude of evoked ascending nociception. Perspective