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.

Coping mechanisms as moderators in the association between sleep and pain problems in young adults with chronic overlapping pain conditions. Herrero Babiloni, A; Sangalli, L; Dal Fabbro, C; Lavigne, GJ; Brown, C; Ash, P; King, CD; Boggero, IA. Journal of Health Psychology. 2026; 13591053261418927.

Brain-immune correlates of quality of life in adolescents with chronic musculoskeletal pain. Pascual-Diaz, S; Suñol, M; Hoeppli, M-E; Biggs, E; King, CD; Aghaeepour, N; Angst, MS; Ganio, E; Cambriel, A; Feyaerts, D; Moayedi, M; Coghill, RC; Simons, LE; López-Solà, M. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity. 2026; 132:106225.

Comparative Analysis of Executive Functioning and Sleep in Female Adolescents with Juvenile Onset Fibromyalgia Versus Healthy Controls. Mountcastle, L; King, CD; Kashikar-Zuck, S; Jastrowski Mano, KE. Pain Medicine. 2026.

Virtual Reality for the Management of Postoperative Pain and Anxiety in Children and Adolescents Undergoing Nuss Repair of Pectus Excavatum: Randomized Controlled Trial (Preprint) Walter, CM; Froass, D; Bell, N; Haack, L; Boehmer, C; Bruguera Torres, C; Spivak, R; Chou, M; Geisler, K; O'conor, K; Williams, SE; Ding, L; King, CD; Olbrecht, VA. JMIR Perioperative Medicine. 2025.

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(6):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(Supplement_1):a453-a453.

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(4):e14992.

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(4):655-657.

Exploring the interactions between circadian rhythms and sleep on pain: a call to action. Goldfarb, C; King, CD. Pain. 2025; 166(7):1465-1467.