A photo of Christopher King.

Assistant Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics

513-636-4408

Biography & Affiliation

Biography

Dr. King has contributed to science by looking at psychological and group-level (i.e., subgrouping of patients) factors underlying analgesic responses to opioid analgesics in healthy adults, opioid regulation of conditioned pain modulation (CPM), and ethnic differences in experimental pain sensitivity, clinical pain, and pain-related disability in patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA). CPM is used to look at the modulatory capacity in humans. It is reduce in chronic pain and older age. Reduction of CPM may contribute to pain and alter somatosensory processing and autonomic regulation. As part of the OA study, Dr. King also examined predictors of knee pain prospectively. Lastly, Dr. King has been involved in several independent studies exploring possible stress-related markers associated with cold pain, which is used as the conditioning stimulus in CPM. He has shown that pain induces the release of endocrine and immune markers, and that they can influence pain responsiveness in pain-free subjects.

Dr. King recently finished a study with naltrexone, an opioid antagonist, on pain modulation, which revealed an interesting interaction between the ability to inhibit pain through endogenous opioids and psychological functioning in pain-free subjects. The recent studies are a first step in a process to evaluate physiological responses induced by pain.

Research Interests

Pain; stress; inflammation

Academic Affiliation

Assistant Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics

Divisions

Anesthesia, Imaging

Education

PhD: University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 2006.

Publications

Heightened risk of pain in young adult women with a history of childhood maltreatment: A prospective longitudinal study. Beal, SJ; Kashikar-Zuck, S; King, C; Black, W; Barnes, J; Noll, JG. Pain. 2020; 161:156-165.

Clinical presentation, diagnosis and polysomnographic findings in children with migraine referred to sleep clinics. Domany, KA; Nahman-Averbuch, H; King, CD; Dye, T; Xu, Y; Hossain, M; Hershey, AD; Simakajornboon, N. Sleep Medicine. 2019; 63:57-63.

Associations of self-report and actigraphy sleep measures with experimental pain outcomes in patients with temporomandibular disorder and healthy controls. Boggero, IA; II, SV J; Thomas, PL; Nahman-Averbuch, H; King, CD. Journal of Psychosomatic Research. 2019; 123:109730-109730.

Increased pain sensitivity but normal pain modulation in adolescents with migraine. Nahman-Averbuch, H; Leon, E; Hunter, BM; Ding, L; Hershey, AD; Powers, SW; King, CD; Coghill, RC. Pain. 2019; 160:1019-1028.

Associations of Pain Intensity and Frequency With Loneliness, Hostility, and Social Functioning: Cross-Sectional, Longitudinal, and Within-Person Relationships. Boggero, IA; Sturgeon, JA; Arewasikporn, A; Castro, SA; King, CD; Segerstrom, SC. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine. 2019; 26:217-229.

Substantial pain burden in frequency, intensity, interference and chronicity among children and adults with neurofibromatosis Type 1. Kongkriangkai, AM; King, C; Martin, LJ; Wakefield, E; Prada, CE; Kelly-Mancuso, G; Schorry, EK. American Journal of Medical Genetics, Part A. 2019; 179:602-607.

Quantitative sensory testing in patients with migraine: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Nahman-Averbuch, H; Shefi, T; II, SV J; Li, D; Ding, L; King, CD; Coghill, RC. Pain. 2018; 159:1202-1223.

Physical performance and movement-evoked pain profiles in community-dwelling individuals at risk for knee osteoarthritis. Cruz-Almeida, Y; Cardoso, J; III, RJ L; Goodin, B; King, CD; Petrov, M; Bartley, EJ; Sibille, KT; Glover, TL; Herbert, MS; et al. Experimental Gerontology. 2017; 98:186-191.

Single Nucleotide Polymorphism in the COL11A2 Gene Associated with Heat Pain Sensitivity in Knee Osteoarthritis. Ho, KW D; Wallace, MR; Sibille, KT; Bartley, EJ; Cruz-Almeida, Y; Glover, TL; King, CD; Goodin, BR; Addison, A; Edberg, JC; et al. Molecular Pain. 2017; 13:1744806917724259-174480691772425.

Pressure Pain Threshold and Anxiety in Adolescent Females With and Without Juvenile Fibromyalgia A Pilot Study. King, CD; Mano, KE J; Barnett, KA; Pfeiffer, M; Ting, TV; Kashikar-Zuck, S. Clinical Journal of Pain. 2017; 33:620-626.