Mild social stress in mice produces opioid-mediated analgesia in visceral but not somatic pain states

Visceral pain has a greater emotional component than somatic pain. To determine if the stress-induced analgesic response is differentially expressed in visceral versus somatic pain states, we studied the effects of a mild social stressor in either acute visceral or somatic pain states in mice. We show that the presence of an unfamiliar conspecific (stranger) in an adjacent cubicle of a standard transparent observation box produced elevated plasma corticosterone levels compared to mice tested alone, suggesting that the mere presence of a stranger is stressful.

from The Journal of Pain http://ift.tt/2kHTRqx
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