Christopher D. King, PhD

Member, Division of Behavioral Medicine and Clinical Psychology
Associate Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics

christopher.king@cchmc.org

About

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.

Interests

Inflammation; digital health; wearables; pain; sleep; virtual reality

Research Areas

Publications

Selected

Preliminary evidence for conserved transcriptional response to adversity in adults with temporomandibular disorder. King, CD; Boggero, IA; Schulert, GS; Pickerill, HM; Cole, S. PAIN Reports. 2021; 6(1):e874.

Polysomnography demonstrates worse sleep in children and adolescents with disorders of gut-brain interaction (DGBI) compared to healthy children: A case-control study. Santucci, NR; Fessler, B; Shah, P; Sahay, R; Hardy, J; Coghill, R; Byars, K; King, C; Dye, T. Sleep Medicine. 2026; 143:108907.

A Description of Health Care Utilization in Young Adults With Chronic Overlapping Pain. Herrero Babiloni, A; Brown, C; Ash, P; Conway, C; King, CD; Boggero, IA. Clinical Journal of Pain. 2026; 42(7).

Cross-sectional and within-person associations of chronic overlapping pain conditions and psychosocial functioning in young adults. Boggero, IA; Herrero Babiloni, A; Ash, PE; Gilmore, GR; Brown, C; Whitehurst, L; King, CD. Journal of Pain. 2026; 43:106249.

The influence of chronotype on pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Herrero Babiloni, A; Sangalli, L; Boggero, IA; Goldfarb, C; King, CD; Lavigne, GJ. Pain. 2026.

Hypermobility and chronic pain in adolescents: diverging functional and neural profiles without sensory differences. Huft, K; Gaydos, EF; White, JN; Pascual-Diaz, S; Schubert-Hjalmarsson, E; Harrison, N; Moua, L; Hoeppli, M-E; Biggs, E; Stinson, JN; Moayedi, M; López-Solá, M; King, CD; Simons, LE. Pain. 2026.

0911 Characterization of Sleep Architecture and Other Sleep Biomarkers in Adolescents with Functional Abdominal Pain. Santucci, N; Shah, P; Dye, T; El-Chammas, K; Graham, K; Coghill, R; King, C. Sleep. 2026; 49(Supplement_1):a406-a406.

0775 Sleep Timing in Children and Adolescents with Functional Abdominal Pain Disorders. Santucci, N; Goldfarb, C; Beebe, D; Shah, P; Sahay, R; King, C. Sleep. 2026; 49(Supplement_1):a346-a346.

Tu1723 CHARACTERIZATION OF SLEEP ARCHITECTURE AND OTHER SLEEP BIOMARKERS IN ADOLESCENTS WITH FUNCTIONAL ABDOMINAL PAIN. Santucci, NR; Shah, P; Dye, T; El-Chammas, K; Graham, K; Coghill, R; King, C. Gastrointestinal Endoscopy. 2026; 103(5):s-1974-s-1975.

760 SLEEP TIMING IN CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS WITH FUNCTIONAL ABDOMINAL PAIN DISORDERS (FAPD) Santucci, NR; Goldfarb, C; Beebe, D; Shah, P; Sahay, RD; King, C. Gastrointestinal Endoscopy. 2026; 103(5):s-2335.

From the Blog

Neuroscience

$10.3M NIH HEAL Grant Powers a New Era in Pediatric Chronic Pain Research

Christopher D. King, PhD, Susmita Kashikar-Zuck, PhD ...3/20/2026