Have you ever noticed that pain in one area took your attention away from pain in another spot? For example, you were feeling back pain and then jammed your toe, and your back pain diminished or went away. As the toe pain reduced, the back pain reappeared. Conditioned Pain Modulation (CPM), formerly known as DNIC (diffuse noxious inhibitory control), is the phenomenon where pain in one area inhibits pain in a different area of the body.
Another example is seen in patients who have pain that is noticeably worse on one side of the body than the other. Once pain is treated on their “bad” side, their “good” side seems to get much worse. In this case, pain on the “good” side was always present, but becomes more noticeable once the worst pain was addressed.
In fibromyalgia syndrome patients, there appears to be impaired CPM. [i] CPM is one reason why understanding a patient’s pain complaint is challenging.
[i] Davis, Mellar P. “The Clinical Importance of Conditioning Pain Modulation: A Review and Clinical Implications.” Research and Development of Opioid-Related Ligands (2013): n. pag. Print.
Filed under: back pain posts • Fibromyalgia Syndrome (FMS) • pain management
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