Damien BoormanNeuroscience of pain and placebo

Publications

19 journal articles · 1 book chapter · 124 citations · h-index 7 · i10-index 4Google Scholar, September 2026

U of T profile ↗ResearchGate ↗

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Manuscripts under review

Rehal SK, Boorman DC, Cho C, et al. (2026).

Whole-brain analyses identify anterior cingulate μ-opioid signaling as a critical mediator of placebo analgesia in neuropathic pain

Advanced Science — Under review.

2026

Crawford LS, Boorman DC, Kang JWM, Peng A, Keay KA, Henderson LA (2026).
The Human Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex in Pain and Pain Modulation: A Review and Activation-Likelihood Estimation Approach
European Journal of Pain 30(6):e70318 · 10.1002/ejp.70318.
PubMed PDF DOI
Crawford LS, Boorman DC, Wake AH, Peng A, Robertson RV, Kang JWM, Robson K, Macey PM, Keay KA, Henderson LA (2026).
Placebo analgesia persistence: evaluating behavioural stability in repeated trials
Communications Biology 9(1):1133 · 10.1038/s42003-026-10377-8.
PubMed PDF DOI
Scicluna RL, Kang JWM, Everett NA, Badolato CJ, Etchart MG, Kevin RC, Wilson BB, Boorman DC, Gordon RS, Anderson LL, Arnold JC, Keay KA, Bowen MT (2026).
Behavioural, pharmacokinetic, and genetic evidence of a cannabidiol-oxycodone drug-drug interaction in mice
Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy 198:119277 · 10.1016/j.biopha.2026.119277.
PDF DOI
Poulson SJ, Skvortsova A, Zahra FT, Boorman DC, Karimi SA, Paz LV, Cui W, Mandatori A, Burek J, Siddiqi Z, Fazili M, Gami SR, Morgan OB, Di Maria M, Dinh A, Liang L, Contofalsky R, Mogil JS, Martin LJ (2026).
Cholecystokinin input from the anterior cingulate cortex to the lateral periaqueductal gray mediates nocebo pain behavior in mice
Nature Communications 17:6637 · 10.1038/s41467-026-73266-y.
PubMed PDF DOI
Boorman DC, Crawford LS, Siddiqi Z, Martin LJ, Henderson LA, Keay KA (2026).
The neuropharmacological basis of placebo analgesia: mechanisms and clinical applications in the context of chronic pain
Pharmacological Reviews 78(2):100111 · 10.1016/j.pharmr.2025.100111.
PubMed DOI
Boorman DC, Keay KA (2026).
Identifying the placebo and nocebo responders: two methods for eliciting placebo analgesia or nocebo hyperalgesia in rats with a neuropathic injury
In Translational Research Methods for Neuropathic Pain. Neuromethods, vol. 235, pp. 233–253. Springer · 10.1007/978-1-0716-5312-8_12. First published online September 2, 2026.
DOI Publisher

2025

Boorman DC, Crawford LS, Henderson LA, Keay KA (2025).
Direct comparisons of neural activity during placebo analgesia and nocebo hyperalgesia between humans and rats
Communications Biology 8(1):570 · 10.1038/s42003-025-07993-1.
PubMed PDF DOI
Crawford LS, Wake A, Robertson RV, Peng A, Meylakh N, Boorman DC, Sattarov L, Ramachandran A, Macefield VG, Keay KA, Henderson LA (2025).
Conditioned Pain Modulation, Placebo and Offset Analgesia: Rates of Behavioural Expression of Inhibitory, Nonresponse and Facilitatory Pain Modulatory Effects
European Journal of Pain 29(7):e70088 · 10.1002/ejp.70088.
PubMed PDF DOI
Boorman DC, Rehal SK, Fazili M, Martin LJ (2025).
Sex and strain differences in analgesic and hyperlocomotor effects of morphine and μ-opioid receptor expression in mice
Journal of Neuroscience Research 103(4):e70039 · 10.1002/jnr.70039.
PubMed PDF DOI

2023

Sosa MKS, Boorman DC, Keay KA (2023).
The impact of sciatic nerve injury and social interactions testing on glucocorticoid receptor expression in catecholaminergic medullary cell populations
Brain Research 1819:148542 · 10.1016/j.brainres.2023.148542.
PubMed PDF DOI
Boorman DC, Keay KA (2023).
Learning pain in context: response-conditioned placebo analgesia and nocebo hyperalgesia in male rats with chronic neuropathic pain
Physiology & Behavior 263:114116 · 10.1016/j.physbeh.2023.114116.
PubMed DOI

2022

Boorman DC, Keay KA (2022).
Sex differences in morphine sensitivity are associated with differential glial expression in the brainstem of rats with neuropathic pain
Journal of Neuroscience Research 100(10):1890–1907 · 10.1002/jnr.25103.
PubMed PDF DOI
Crawford LS, Boorman DC, Keay KA, Henderson LA (2022).
The pain conductor: brainstem modulation in acute and chronic pain
Current Opinion in Supportive and Palliative Care 16(2):71–77 · 10.1097/SPC.0000000000000598.
PubMed DOI
Sosa MK, Boorman DC, Keay KA (2022).
Sciatic nerve injury rebalances the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis in rats with persistent changes to their social behaviours
Journal of Neuroendocrinology 34(6):e13131 · 10.1111/jne.13131.
PubMed PDF DOI

2021

Boorman DC, Keay KA (2021).
Escalating morphine dosage fails to elicit conditioned analgesia in a preclinical chronic neuropathic pain model
Behavioural Pharmacology 32(6):479–486 · 10.1097/FBP.0000000000000642.
PubMed DOI
Keay KA, Argueta MA, Zafir DN, Wyllie PM, Michael GJ, Boorman DC (2021).
Evidence that increased cholecystokinin in the periaqueductal gray facilitates changes in resident-intruder social interactions triggered by peripheral nerve injury
Journal of Neurochemistry 158(5):1151–1171 · 10.1111/jnc.15476.
PubMed DOI
Boorman DC, Keay KA (2021).
Morphine-conditioned placebo analgesia in female and male rats with chronic neuropathic pain: c-Fos expression in the rostral ventromedial medulla
Neuroscience 457:51–73 · 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2020.11.038.
PubMed DOI
Boorman DC, Brown R, Keay KA (2021).
Periaqueductal gray inputs to the paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus: columnar topography and glucocorticoid (in)sensitivity
Brain Research.

2020

Bembrick AL, Boorman DC, Keay KA (2020).
Disability-specific genes GRIN1, GRIN2 and CNR1 show injury-dependent protein expression in the lumbar spinal cord of CCI rats
Neuroscience Letters 728:134982 · 10.1016/j.neulet.2020.134982.
PubMed DOI

2019

Boorman DC, Kang JWM, Keay KA (2019).
Peripheral nerve injury attenuates stress-induced Fos-family expression in the locus coeruleus of male Sprague-Dawley rats
Brain Research 1719:253–262 · 10.1016/j.brainres.2019.06.007.
PubMed DOI