The CPT is recommended for this purpose and is considered ethical to use as it is a valid way to attain the established goals, does not cause collateral damage such as tissue damage from psychological trauma, and the stimulation is considered very low. To determine if this procedure is ethical or not, one must carefully analyze the benefits and the risks. Even though the CPT causes pain, the participant is completely in control over the procedure, since the participant can withdraw their forearm whenever he/she wants. Furthermore, the pain is not caused instantly, that is, it grows slowly, and the process can stop before the pain becomes severe [5 (link)]. Moreover, the participant was free to quit this study at any time without any kind of prejudice. Thus, although pain is caused by this method, the findings can have a very high contribution to improving pain management and has no collateral physical or psychological effects. Nonetheless, there was a need to establish exclusion criteria [5 (link)].
It is of extreme importance to point out that all recommendations for data protection were followed, and that the integrity of the participants was guaranteed.
This study was approved by the Ethics and Deontological Council of the University of Aveiro (CED-UA-24-CED/2021).
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