The association between childhood maltreatment and thermal pain sensitivity in a high-risk adolescent population

Background – research on childhood maltreatment and pain sensitivity has produced opposing hypothesis. One line of research proposes maltreatment leads to developmental impairment of the central nervous system and thus more sensitivity to pain. Another posits childhood maltreatment leads to habituation of pain and thus lower sensitivity. Empirical research in adolescents so far has relied on potentially biased self-report measures or on highly selective populations.Methods – a sample (n =187) from a population-based cohort of adolescents at high-risk for psychopathology (ages 16.7 to 20.5) completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire short form (CTQ-SF) to assess emotional, physical, sexual abuse, and emotional and physical neglect. To asses pain sensitivity, a thermal quantitative sensory testing procedure was used which measured when adolescents felt pain from hot and cold stimuli. Multilevel ordered beta regressions were used to estimate the associations adjusted for age, sex and internalizing problems. Results – individuals reporting childhood emotional abuse or neglect and physical neglect could on average withstand hot and cold pain of 1.03°C [0.13, 1.84] to 3.20°C [0.62, 5.97] more across different types of abuse compared to those with no emotional abuse or (physical) neglect history. Physical abuse was not associated with pain sensitivity. Sexual abuse was only associated with cold and not with hot pain sensitivity.Discussion – the current findings suggest that childhood maltreatment might lead to habituation to painful stimuli as opposed to increased pain sensitivity