Pain
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Chronic pain and sleep problems frequently co-occur. Pain itself disturbs sleep, but other factors may also contribute to sleep problems in pain patients. This cross-sectional study of 473 patients (69.9% female, mean age 47 years) entering tertiary pain management compared normally sleeping pain patients with those having recurring sleep problems to determine the relationship between pain and sleep. ⋯ Patients having sleep problems reported more use of sleep and pain medications than those sleeping normally. Findings about pain-related anxiety suggest physiological reactions as significant factors for increased sleep disturbances. These factors need to be addressed in the management of the comorbidity of pain and sleep problems, and research to understand mechanisms in these is sorely needed.
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Meta Analysis
Potential role of blood biomarkers in patients with fibromyalgia: a systematic review with meta-analysis.
Fibromyalgia (FM) is a complex chronic pain condition. Its symptoms are nonspecific, and to date, no objective test exists to confirm FM diagnosis. Potential objective measures include the circulating levels of blood biomarkers. ⋯ Nevertheless, this systematic literature review and meta-analysis could not support the notion that these blood biomarkers are specific biomarkers of FM. Our literature review, however, revealed that these same individual biomarkers may have the potential role of identifying underlying pathologies or other conditions that often coexist with FM. Future research is needed to evaluate the potential clinical value for these biomarkers while controlling for the various confounding variables.
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Many patients experience pain after surgery. Psychological factors such as emotion and cognition are shown to be associated with the development of acute and chronic postsurgical pain (CPSP). Therefore, the question arises whether targeting these psychological factors can reduce negative postsurgical outcomes. ⋯ In addition, interventions delivered after surgery and interventions delivered by a psychologist tended to be more effective than interventions delivered before surgery and interventions delivered by another healthcare provider. Furthermore, the current review points to the need for more research to determine which specific type of intervention may be most beneficial for surgical patients. Finally, the current review identified that research in this domain has concerns regarding bias in missing outcome data due to withdrawal and drop out.
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The aim of this review or meta-analysis is to synthesize the prevalence of post-coronavirus disease (COVID) pain symptoms of musculoskeletal origin in hospitalized or nonhospitalized patients recovered from severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. MEDLINE, CINAHL, PubMed, EMBASE, and Web of Science databases, as well as medRxiv and bioRxiv preprint servers were searched up to May 1, 2021. Studies or preprints reporting data on post-COVID pain symptoms such as myalgias, arthralgias, or chest pain after SARS-CoV-2 infection and collected by personal, telephonic, or electronical interview were included. ⋯ The overall prevalence of post-COVID myalgia, joint pain, and chest pain ranged from 5.65% to 18.15%, 4.6% to 12.1%, and 7.8% to 23.6%, respectively, at different follow-up periods during the first year postinfection. Time trend analysis showed a decrease prevalence of musculoskeletal post-COVID pain from the symptom's onset to 30 days after, an increase 60 days after, but with a second decrease ≥180 days after. This meta-analysis has shown that almost 10% of individuals infected by SARS-CoV-2 will suffer from musculoskeletal post-COVID pain symptomatology at some time during the first year after the infection.
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Ivabradine, a hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide-gated cation (HCN) channel blocker and clinically approved bradycardic agent, has analgesic effects against neuropathic pain. Although the expression of HCN channels in the spinal dorsal horn (SDH) is augmented under inflammatory pain, spinal responses to centrally and peripherally applied ivabradine remain poorly understood. We investigated the spinal action and cellular mechanisms underlying the drug's analgesic effects against inflammatory pain using inflammatory pain model rats. ⋯ These phenomena were inhibited by forskolin, an activator of HCN channels. In conclusion, spinal responses mediated by HCN channels on primary afferent terminals are suppressed by central and peripheral administration of ivabradine; the drug also exhibits analgesic effects against inflammatory pain. In addition, ivabradine preferentially acts on C-fiber terminals of SDH neurons and induces a stronger inhibition of neuronal excitability in inflammatory pain.