The Effect of Topical Local Anesthetics on Thermal Pain Sensitivity in Patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Table 3

Average clinical pain reports (±SD) across the treatment conditions in IBS subjects. The majority of IBS patients did report clinical pain at one time or another throughout the time period of their involvement in the study, but not always on the days of testing. None of the control subjects had any pain, and therefore control subjects are not listed in the table. No correlation was found between lidocaine effect and clinical symptoms during or between sessions in the lower or upper part of the body (All 𝑃>0.10).

	Baseline (Session 1)	Double placebo (Session 3)	Rectal lidocaine (Session 4)	Oral lidocaine (Session 6)
Upper body intensity (0–100%)	22.0 (7.1)	22.0 (7.1)	19.0^†	41.5 (13.4)
Lower body intensity (0–100%)	24.7 (14.2)	24.7 (14.2)	68.0^†	23 (0.0)
Unpleasantness of clinical pain (0–100%)	37.3 (17.82)	37.3 (17.82)	82.0^†	48.0 (2.83)
Number subjects reporting pain (%)	4 (36%)	4 (36%)	1 (9%)	2 (18%)

Abbreviations: ^†, ratings for single subject.