Anxiety- but not depressive-like behaviors are related to facial hyperalgesia in a model of trigeminal neuropathic pain in rats.

Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) is a painful condition characterized by excruciating facial pain, which has a serious impact on quality of life. Depression and anxiety have been commonly associated with TN, but clinical studies report that these comorbidities are frequently underdiagnosed and undertreated in TN patients. Herein it was investigated if rats submitted to the infraorbital nerve constriction (CION), a model of trigeminal neuropathic pain, would display anxiety- and depressive-like behaviors in addition to the facial sensory changes in different time points after the nerve injury.