The following is a summary of the “Preliminary Evidence for the Sequentially Mediated Effect of Racism-Related Stress on Pain Sensitivity Through Sleep Disturbance and Corticolimbic Opioid Receptor Function,” published in the January 2023 issue of Pain management by Letzen, et al.
Sleep disturbances worsen discomfort. Understanding how racism-related stress affects sleep and pain in Black adults may help reduce racialized pain inequalities. This pilot investigation explored sequential mediation of racism-related stress on experimental pain through sleep disturbance and corticolimbic μOR function in pain-free non-Hispanic Black (NHB) and White (NHW) people.
Participants conducted questionnaires, actigraphy, PET, and sensory testing. NHB individuals had greater sleep disturbance and pain sensitivity (r =.35 and r=-.37, respectively), substantially correlated with racism-related stress. Furthermore, in a sequential mediation model, sleep disturbance and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) μOR binding potential (BPND) mediators reduced the total effect of racism-related stress on pain tolerance (β=-.38, P =.005).
The indirect effect was considerable [point estimate = -.003, (-.007, -.0003). Racism-related stress may successively affect pain sensitivity through sleep disturbance and vmPFC μOR BPND. Their findings cautiously suggest that sleep interventions in racism-based trauma-informed therapy may help prevent downstream pain consequences as systemic racism is eliminated by legislation. This early investigation found that racism-related stress affects pain through sleep disturbance and ventromedial prefrontal brain mu-opioid receptor binding potential. Sleep treatments in racism-based trauma-informed therapy may reduce pain inequities as policy improvements eradicate racism.
Source: sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1526590022004023
