Neurotensin (NT) can produce a profound analgesia or enhance pain responses,
depending on the circumstances. Recent evidence suggests that this may be due to a dose-
dependent recruitment of distinct populations of pain modulatory neurons. NT knockout mice
display defects in both basal nociceptive responses and stress-induced analgesia. Stress-
induced antinociception is absent in these mice and instead stress induces a hyperalgesic
response, suggesting that NT plays a key role in the stress-induced suppression of pain …