Effects of nicotine on spinal cord injury pain vary among subtypes of pain and smoking status: results from a randomized, controlled experiment.

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) in this randomized controlled trial publication.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of nicotine on self-reported pain among individuals with SCI and to determine if the effect of nicotine varied by pain subtype.

A randomized, placebo-controlled crossover design was used to determine the effect of nicotine exposure on subtypes of SCI-related pain among smokers and nonsmokers.

Why It Was Studied

Less is known about the effects of smoking and nicotine on the multifaceted and often complex subtypes of pain that frequently occur following spinal cord injury (SCI).

In sum, smoking or tobacco use history may determine the analgesic (or enhanced pain perception) effect of nicotine on post-SCI pain.

Who Took Part

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were young adults, adults and middle-aged adults, both men and women.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled and crossover study.

The participants were allocated by chance, so the Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) group and the comparison group should start out alike.

Blinding on both sides kept the participants and researchers unaware of who received Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide).

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) could be set against what happens without it.

In the crossover set-up each of the participants took both Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) and the comparison in turn, acting as their own control.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Nicotine, Pain, Pain Measurement, Smoking and Spinal Cord Injuries.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide).

The publication is from 2012 (The journal of pain), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) compound page, all human trials.