NCT06617494

Endogenous Pain Inhibition Deficiency in Chronic TMD Pain

The Role of Endogenous Pain Inhibition Deficiency in Chronic TMD Pain Pathophysiology

• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: —
• Study type: Observational
• Enrollment: 40 (estimated)
• Sponsor: University of Minnesota · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 74 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

Temporomandibular disorders (TMDs) involve a range of conditions with varied causes, affecting a large portion of the U.S. population and posing challenges for diagnosis and management, especially in chronic cases. Despite advances in understanding TMD pathophysiology, the role of central sensitization, particularly deficient endogenous pain inhibition, remains unclear. The conditioned pain modulation (CPM) test, used to assess pain inhibition in chronic TMD pain, has produced inconsistent results due to varying testing parameters. The proposed cross-sectional study will investigate the efficiency of endogenous pain inhibition in individuals with chronic TMD pain compared to controls by applying noxious and non-noxious stimuli to facial and non-facial sites. The findings aim to clarify the impact of weaker pain inhibition over the face, how the conditioning stimulus' painfulness affects inhibition and the relationship between pain inhibition and fluctuations in TMD pain intensity.

Conditions

• Chronic Temporomandibular Disorders (TMD)

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Pain modulation testing	During the visit, noxious heat stimuli will be applied bilaterally to the face and distant body sites as part of conditioned pain modulation (CPM) testing. The test stimuli will be individually tailored to be moderately painful, while the conditioning stimulus will vary in intensity: moderately painful, non-painful, and sham heat. Participants will also record daily TMD pain intensity ratings for seven days before and after the visit.

Timeline

• Start date: 2024-09-16
• Primary completion: 2026-09-15
• Completion: 2026-12-15
• First posted: 2024-09-27
• Last updated: 2025-08-19

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States