Are Conditioned Pain Modulation and Pain Sensitivity Risk Factors for the Development of Functional Somatic Disorder?...

Disrupted pain regulation has been suggested as an important component of functional somatic disorder (FSD), but evidence from large population-based studies remains limited. This study examined whether altered pain regulation, defined as lower pressure pain threshold (PPT) and reduced conditioned pain modulation (CPM), constitutes a risk factor for developing FSD over a 5-year period in a large population-based cohort.

PPT was recorded at baseline. During cold pressor stimulation of the hand, PPT was reassessed and the difference from baseline defined the CPM effect. Participants were randomly selected from the adult Danish population (n = 2198) of whom 1269 (57.7%) participated in the 5-year follow-up. Incident FSD cases were identified using validated self-reported symptom questionnaires. Associations between pain measures and incident FSD were examined using logistic regression analyses.

Overall, no significant associations were observed between baseline PPT (OR = 0.92, 95% CI: 0.83-1.01) or CPM (OR = 0.96, 95% CI: 0.90-1.03) and the development of FSD during the 5-year follow-up period. Similarly, changes in PPT from baseline to follow-up were not associated with incident FSD (OR = 0.91, 95% CI: 0.83-1.00).

The findings do not support that altered pain regulation is a risk factor for the development of FSD in the general population. However, uncertainty persists due to possible outcome misclassification, a response rate of 57.7%, low event numbers and measurement limitations.

This large population-based longitudinal study challenges prevailing assumptions by showing that experimentally assessed pain sensitivity and conditioned pain modulation do not predict the development of functional somatic disorder (FSD). Contrary to findings from clinical samples, altered pain regulation was not a significant risk factor over 5 years. These findings question the causal role of central pain mechanisms in FSD onset and call for more research to clarify the underlying mechanisms of FSD.