Expectancy Effects on Conditioned Pain Modulation Are Not Influenced by Naloxone or Morphine

Background Recent studies suggest that participant expectations influence pain ratings during conditioned pain modulation testing. The present study extends this work by examining expectancy effects among individuals with and without chronic back pain after administration of placebo, naloxone, or morphine. Purpose This study aims to identify the influence of individual differences in expectancy on changes in heat pain ratings obtained before, during, and after a forearm ischemic pain stimulus. Methods Participants with chronic low back pain ( n = 88) and healthy controls ( n = 100) rated heat pain experience (i.e., “test stimulus”) before, during, and after exposure to ischemic pain (i.e., “conditioning stimulus”). Prior to testing, participants indicated whether they anticipated that their heat pain would increase, decrease, or remain unchanged during ischemic pain. Results Analysis of the effects of expectancy (pain increase, decrease, or no change), drug (placebo, naloxone, or morphine), and group (back pain, healthy) on changes in heat pain revealed a significant main effect of expectancy ( p = 0.001), but no other significant main effects or interactions. Follow-up analyses revealed that individuals who expected lower pain during ischemia reported significantly larger decreases in heat pain as compared with those who expected either no change ( p = 0.004) or increased pain ( p = 0.001). Conclusions The present findings confirm that expectancy is an important contributor to conditioned pain modulation effects, and therefore significant caution is needed when interpreting findings that do not account for this individual difference. Opioid mechanisms do not appear to be involved in these expectancy effects.