Pain
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Review Meta Analysis
Quantitative Sensory Testing (QST) and predicting outcomes for musculoskeletal pain, disability and negative affect: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Hypersensitivity due to central pain mechanisms can influence recovery and lead to worse clinical outcomes, but the ability of quantitative sensory testing (QST), an index of sensitisation, to predict outcomes in chronic musculoskeletal disorders remains unclear. We systematically reviewed the evidence for ability of QST to predict pain, disability, and negative affect using searches of CENTRAL, MEDLINE, EMBASE, AMED, CINAHL, and PubMed databases up to April 2018. Title screening, data extraction, and methodological quality assessments were performed independently by 2 reviewers. ⋯ Meta-analysis revealed that baseline QST predicted musculoskeletal pain (mean r = 0.31, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.23-0.38, n = 1057 participants) and disability (mean r = 0.30, 95% CI: 0.19-0.40, n = 290 participants). Baseline modalities quantifying central mechanisms such as temporal summation and conditioned pain modulation were associated with follow-up pain (temporal summation: mean r = 0.37, 95% CI: 0.17-0.54; conditioned pain modulation: mean r = 0.36, 95% CI: 0.20-0.50), whereas baseline mechanical threshold modalities were predictive of follow-up disability (mean r = 0.25, 95% CI: 0.03-0.45). Quantitative sensory testing indices of pain hypersensitivity might help develop targeted interventions aiming to improve outcomes across a range of musculoskeletal conditions.
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The aims of this study were to review the psychometric properties of the widely used Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS) using meta-analytic methods and to investigate the relationship between PCS scores and participant characteristics. A systematic search from 1995 found 229 experimental, quasi-experimental, and correlational studies that report PCS scores. Multivariate regression explored variables related to pain catastrophizing and participant demographics. ⋯ Study type influenced PCS scores with nonrandomized controlled trials reporting higher PCS scores than other study types, but results were confounded with pain diagnosis, as controlled trials were more likely than quasi-experimental studies to recruit clinical samples. The meta-analytic results provide insights into demographic influences on pain catastrophizing scores and highlight areas for further research. The advantages of systematic review and meta-analytic methods to achieve greater understanding and precision of psychometric properties-in this case, of the PCS-are applicable to other widely used outcome tools.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Pragmatic Clinical Trial
Acute alcohol effects on conditioned pain modulation, but not temporal summation of pain.
Although pain reduction after alcohol administration has repeatedly been demonstrated, alcohol effects on advanced and clinically relevant dynamic pain paradigms are still unknown. As such, temporal summation of pain (TSP) and conditioned pain modulation (CPM) indicate mechanisms of endogenous pain modulation and involve certain neurotransmitter systems crucially influenced by alcohol. Our study is the first to investigate acute alcohol effects on TSP and CPM. ⋯ Temporal summation of pain was not affected by alcohol, and alcohol effects on pain threshold were small and limited to the higher dose. Our findings suggest that analgesic alcohol effects might be mainly driven by an enhancement of endogenous pain inhibition. The frequent use of alcohol as self-medication in chronic pain might be motivated by alcohol temporarily restoring deficient CPM, thus leading to pain relief in the short run and alcohol-related problems in the long run.
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Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a medical condition in which chronic pain is common and negatively impacts psychosocial function and quality of life. Although the brain mechanisms underlying chronic pain are well studied in other painful conditions, the brain mechanisms underlying chronic pain and the associated psychosocial comorbidities are not well established in SCD. A growing literature demonstrates the effect of treatment of chronic pain, including pharmacological and nonpharmacological treatments, on brain function. ⋯ Although neuroimaging studies show an important role for psychological factors, pain management is nearly exclusively based on opioids. Behavior therapy seems useful to improve psychological symptoms as well as chronic pain and quality of life. Further investigation is required with larger cohorts, matched controls, and examination of treatment-related neural mechanisms.
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Despite evidence linking increased risk of opioid use disorder with specific opioid-prescribing patterns, the relationship between these patterns and heroin use is less understood. This study aimed to determine whether dose and duration of opioid prescriptions predict subsequent heroin use in United States veterans. We analyzed data from 2002 to 2012 from the Veterans Aging Cohort Study, a prospective cohort study. ⋯ In the final model, prior receipt of a high-dose opioid prescription was associated with past year heroin use (adjusted hazard ratio use = 2.54, 95% confidence interval: 1.26-5.10), whereas long-term opioid receipt was not (adjusted hazard ratio = 1.09, 95% confidence interval: 0.75-1.57). Patients receiving high-dose opioid prescriptions should be monitored for heroin use. These findings support current national guidelines recommending against prescribing high-dose opioids for treating pain.