# Acute Effects of Alcohol Use on Chronic Orofacial Pain

> **NIH NIH R21** · UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA · 2020 · $181,094

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
It has long been suggested that alcohol has analgesic properties. Data suggest that about 25% of chronic
orofacial pain patients endorse the use of alcohol for pain management. However, the biopsychosocial
mechanisms underlying this intuitive interaction are not well established. Studies of healthy individuals using
quantitative sensory testing (QST) have shown that familial risk for alcoholism, as well as psychological
characteristics like mood and personality, may act as critical factors modulating individuals’ sensitivity to
alcohol analgesia. However, to our knowledge, the acute pain-relieving effect of alcohol intake in individuals
with chronic pain has never been systematically studied. This relationship is important to understand because
alcohol analgesia may be associated with relief. Relief from pain may act as a potent negative reinforcer for
alcohol intake, which, in turn, can have adverse health effects by increasing risk of developing an alcohol use
disorder in people with chronic pain. Self-medication of pain with alcohol may also result in harmful drug
interactions, risk of injury due to neurobehavioral impairment, and even development of painful alcohol
neuropathy. The overall goal of this proposal is to test the analgesic effects of acute alcohol consumption in
individuals with chronic pain and a comparison group of pain-free controls, and identify critical biopsychosocial
modulators of alcohol analgesia. These efforts will inform research and clinical/translational efforts regarding
modifiable and unmodifiable factors related to risk associated with self-medication of chronic pain using
alcohol, and provide critical feasibility and effect size data for future proposals

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9926778
- **Project number:** 5R21AA026805-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
- **Principal Investigator:** Jeffrey B. Boissoneault
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $181,094
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-05-10 → 2022-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9926778

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9926778, Acute Effects of Alcohol Use on Chronic Orofacial Pain (5R21AA026805-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-11 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9926778. Licensed CC0.

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