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

Research Divisions

Anesthesia, Imaging

Education

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

Publications

Guided relaxation-based virtual reality versus distraction-based virtual reality or passive control for postoperative pain management in children and adolescents undergoing Nuss repair of pectus excavatum: Protocol for a prospective, randomised, controlled trial (FOREVR Peds trial). Olbrecht, VA; Williams, SE; O'Conor, KT; Boehmer, CO; Marchant, GW; Glynn, SM; Geisler, KJ; Ding, L; Yang, G; King, CD. BMJ Open. 2020; 10:e040295-e040295.

Childhood maltreatment type and severity predict depersonalization and derealization in treatment-seeking women with posttraumatic stress disorder. King, CD; Hill, SB; Wolff, JD; Bigony, CE; Winternitz, S; Ressler, KJ; Kaufman, ML; Lebois, LA M. Psychiatry Research. 2020; 292:113301-113301.

Cross-Sectional Associations of Fatigue Subtypes with Pain Interference in Younger, Middle-Aged, and Older Adults with Chronic Orofacial Pain. Boggero, IA; Rojas Ramirez, MV; King, CD. Pain Medicine. 2020; 21:1961-1970.

Alterations in Brain Function After Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Migraine in Children and Adolescents. Nahman-Averbuch, H; II, SV J; Chamberlin, LA; Van Diest, AM K; Peugh, JL; Lee, GR; Radhakrishnan, R; Hershey, AD; King, CD; Coghill, RC; et al. Headache. 2020; 60:1165-1182.

Vitamin D supplementation and pain-related emergency department visits in children with sickle cell disease. Hood, AM; Quinn, CT; King, CD; Shook, LM; Peugh, JL; Crosby, LE. Complementary Therapies in Medicine. 2020; 49:102342-102342.

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.