Sex, gender, and pain: an overview of a complex field. Anesth Analg 2008 Jul;107(1):309-17
Date
07/19/2008Pubmed ID
18635502Pubmed Central ID
PMC2715547DOI
10.1213/01.ane.0b013e31816ba437Scopus ID
2-s2.0-49849083933 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 204 CitationsAbstract
Traditionally, biomedical research in the field of pain has been conducted with male animals and subjects. Over the past 20-30 yr, it has been increasingly recognized that this narrow approach has missed an important variable: sex. An ever-increasing number of studies have established sex differences in response to pain and analgesics. These studies have demonstrated that the differences between the sexes appear to have a biological and psychological basis. We will provide brief review of the epidemiology, rodent, and human experimental findings. The controversies and widespread disagreement in the literature highlight the need for a progressive approach to the questions involving collaborative efforts between those trained in the basic and clinical biomedical sciences and those in the epidemiological and social sciences. In order for patients suffering from acute and/or chronic pain to benefit from this work, the approach has to involve the use or development of clinically relevant models of nociception or pain to answer the basic, but complex, question. The present state of the literature allows no translation of the work to our clinical decision-making.
Author List
Hurley RW, Adams MCAuthor
Robert W. Hurley MD, PhD Adjunct Professor of Anesthesiology and CTSI in the Anesthesiology department at Medical College of WisconsinMESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
Analgesics, OpioidAnimals
Disease Models, Animal
Female
Humans
Male
Pain
Pain Threshold
Positron-Emission Tomography
Prevalence
Receptors, Opioid, kappa
Sex Characteristics