Post-traumatic stress disorder due to sexual abuse and its relation to pain sensitivity among patients in methadone maintenance treatment.

We studied whether post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) due to sexual abuse is related to pain indices among methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) patients. Pain threshold was determined, and suprathreshold pain levels were rated among 18 patients with PTSD and sexual abuse, and 38 patients without PTSD (20 with and 18 without sexual abuse). Patients with PTSD had higher proportion of chronic pain and high-perceived stress, and lower pain threshold, with similar supra-threshold ratings. Patients with benzodiazepine in urine had higher pain thresholds and they rated supra-threshold stimuli lower. However, the analgesic effect was not observed among PTSD patients.