Szikszay TM, et al. - In this systematic review and meta-analysis, researchers investigated the magnitude and difference of offset analgesia (OA) in healthy participants and chronic pain patients. In PubMed, Web of Science, CINAHL, PEDro, PsycINFO, and Cochrane CENTRAL, they searched for controlled trials, case-control studies, cross-sectional studies, case-series or other observational studies evaluating the effect of a ±1°C offset trial in healthy controls and patients with chronic pain. Assessing 26 studies (healthy participants n=758; chronic pain patients n=134) for the qualitative synthesis and 12 for meta-analyses (healthy participants n=366; chronic pain patients n=73), they noted a significant difference between offset and constant temperature trials for continuous pain intensity rating immediately after a 1°C decrease in temperature, but not after a fixed time period of 5 seconds. Furthermore, they noted that pain-free participants display a larger OA response compared with individuals with chronic pain when rating pain continuously.