Christopher King

Christopher D. King, PhD


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

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.

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

Interests

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

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:e874.

Exploring the interactions between circadian rhythms and sleep on pain: a call to action. Goldfarb, C; King, CD. PAIN. 2025; 166:1465-1467.

Radiation of pain: psychophysical evidence for a population coding mechanism in humans. Adamczyk, WM; Ramu, V; Jackson, C; Schulze, G; Goldschneider, KR; Kashikar-Zuck, S; King, CD; Coghill, RC. PAIN. 2025; 166:1285-1295.

1047 Children and Adolescents with Gut-Brain Disorders Have Worse Sleep Apnea Indices, Sleep Arousals, and Periodic Limb Movements Than Healthy Children. Santucci, N; Fessler, B; Sahay, R; Byars, K; Hardy, J; Madis, E; King, C; Dye, T. Sleep. 2025; 48:a453.

Youth with high-frequency headaches due to migraine are more vulnerable to non-cephalic pain complaints. Reidy, BL; Powers, SW; King, CD; Kabbouche, M; Kacperski, J; Hershey, AD. Headache. 2025; 65:655-657.

Youth With Functional Abdominal Pain Disorders Have More Sleep Disturbances. A School-Based Study. Santucci, NR; Velasco-Benitez, CA; Velasco-Suarez, DA; King, C; Byars, K; Dye, T; Li, J; Saps, M. Neurogastroenterology and Motility. 2025; 37:e14992.

Preliminary data examining associations of fatigue subtypes with pain, pain interference, sleep quality, and affect across 14 days in adolescents with chronic musculoskeletal pain and pain-free controls. Boggero, IA; Peugh, J; King, CD. Journal of Pediatric Psychology. 2025; 50:297-306.

Reply to: Interindividual differences in pain can be explained by fMRI, sociodemographic, and psychological factors. Hoeppli, ME; Nahman-Averbuch, H; Hinkle, WA; Leon, E; Peugh, J; López-Solà, M; King, CD; Goldschneider, KR; Coghill, RC. Nature Communications. 2024; 15:7884.

The role of cytokines in acute and chronic postsurgical pain after major musculoskeletal surgeries in a quaternary pediatric center. Chidambaran, V; Duan, Q; Pilipenko, V; Glynn, SM; Sproles, A; Martin, LJ; Lacagnina, MJ; King, CD; Ding, L. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity. 2024; 122:596-603.

Use of Biofeedback-Based Virtual Reality in Pediatric Perioperative and Postoperative Settings: Observational Study. Orgil, Z; Karthic, A; Bell, NF; Heisterberg, LM; Williams, SE; Ding, L; Kashikar-Zuck, S; King, CD; Olbrecht, VA. JMIR Perioperative Medicine. 2024; 7:e48959.