A photo of Christopher King.

Christopher D. King, PhD

  • Assistant 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

Pain; stress; inflammation

Research Areas

Anesthesia, Imaging

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.

Diagnostic criteria for temporomandibular disorders (DC/TMD) in children and adolescents: an international Delphi study-Part 2-Development of Axis II. Rongo, R; Ekberg, E; Nilsson, I; Al-Khotani, A; Alstergren, P; Conti, PC R; Durham, J; Goulet, J; Hirsch, C; Kalaykova, SI; et al. Journal of Oral Rehabilitation. 2021.

Transient Reductions in Postoperative Pain and Anxiety with the Use of Virtual Reality in Children. Olbrecht, VA; O'Conor, KT; Williams, SE; Boehmer, CO; Marchant, GW; Glynn, SM; Geisler, KJ; Pickerill, HM; Ding, L; Yang, G; et al. Pain Medicine. 2021; 22:2426-2435.

Guided Relaxation-Based Virtual Reality for Acute Postoperative Pain and Anxiety in a Pediatric Population: Pilot Observational Study. Olbrecht, VA; O'Conor, KT; Williams, SE; Boehmer, CO; Marchant, GW; Glynn, SM; Geisler, KJ; Ding, L; Yang, G; King, CD. Journal of Medical Internet Research. 2021; 23.

Improvements in Sleep Correlate With Improvements in Clinical Outcomes Among Adolescents Undergoing Intensive Interdisciplinary Pain Treatment. Boggero, IA; Krietsch, KN; Pickerill, HM; Byars, KC; Homan, KJ; Williams, SE; King, CD. Clinical Journal of Pain. 2021; 37:443-453.

The promise of mechanistic approaches to understanding how youth with migraine get better-An Editorial to the 2020 Members' Choice Award Paper. Nahman-Averbuch, H; Hershey, AD; Peugh, JL; King, CD; Kroon Van Diest, AM; Chamberlin, LA; Kabbouche, MA; Kacperski, J; Coghill, RC; Powers, SW. Headache. 2021; 61:803-804.

Leveraging Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality to Combat Chronic Pain in Youth: Position Paper From the Interdisciplinary Network on Virtual and Augmented Technologies for Pain Management. Logan, DE; Simons, LE; Caruso, TJ; Gold, JI; Greenleaf, W; Griffin, A; King, CD; Menendez, M; Olbrecht, VA; Rodriguez, S; et al. Journal of Medical Internet Research. 2021; 23.

Spatial aspects of pain modulation are not disrupted in adolescents with migraine. Nahman-Averbuch, H; Thomas, PL; Schneider, VJ; Chamberlin, LA; Peugh, JL; Hershey, AD; Powers, SW; Coghill, RC; King, CD. Headache. 2021; 61:485-492.

Identification of neural and psychophysical predictors of headache reduction after cognitive behavioral therapy in adolescents with migraine. Nahman-Averbuch, H; Schneider, VJ; Chamberlin, LA; Kroon Van Diest, AM; Peugh, JL; Lee, GR; Radhakrishnan, R; Hershey, AD; Powers, SW; Coghill, RC; et al. Pain. 2021; 162:372-381.

Sleep among Youth with Severely Disabling Chronic Pain: Before, during, and after Inpatient Intensive Interdisciplinary Pain Treatment. Krietsch, KN; Beebe, DW; King, C; Homan, KJ; Williams, SE. Children. 2021; 8.