Conditioned Pain Modulation and Temporal Summation of Pain in Patients With Traumatic and Non-Specific Neck Pain: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

In patients with neck pain, it is unclear whether pain inhibition and facilitation endogenous pain mechanisms are altered. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to improve their understanding by assessing conditioned pain modulation (CPM) and temporal summation of pain (TSP) in patients with neck pain associated with whiplash-associated disorders (WAD) or of a nonspecific neck pain (NSNP) nature compared to pain-free controls. Very low certainty evidence suggests: impaired CPM when assessed remotely in chronic WAD patients (n = 7, 230 patients and 204 controls, standardized mean differences (SMD) = −.47 [−.89 to −.04]; P = .04) but not locally (n = 6, 155 patients and 150 controls; SMD = −.34 [−.68 to .01]; P = .05), impaired CPM in chronic NSNP patients when assessed locally (n = 5, 223 patients and 162 controls; SMD = −.55 [−1.04 to −.06]; P = .04) but not remotely (n = 3, 72 patients and 66 controls; SMD = −.33 [−.92 to .25]; P = .13), TSP not facilitated in either chronic WAD (local TSP: n = 4, 90 patients and 87 controls; SMD = .68 [−.62 to 1.99]) (remote TSP: n = 8, 254 patients and 214 controls; SMD = .18 [−.12 to .48]) or chronic NSNP (local TSP: n = 2, 139 patients and 92 controls; SMD = .21 [−1.00 to 1.41]), (remote TSP: n = 3; 91 patients and 352 controls; SMD = .60 [−1.33 to 2.52]). The evidence is very uncertain whether CPM is impaired and TSP facilitated in patients with WAD and NSNP. This review and meta-analysis present the current evidence on CPM and TSP in patients with WAD and NSNP. Standardization of measurement methodology is needed to draw clear conclusions. Subsequently, future studies should investigate the clinical relevance of these measurements as prognostic variables or predictors of treatment success. •The evidence for impaired CPM in people with traumatic or nonspecific neck pain is very uncertain.•It is very uncertain if TSP is facilitated in people with traumatic or nonspecific neck pain.•To improve the evidence, standardization of CPM and TSP methodology is required.