The Clinical journal of pain
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Deceptive and Nondeceptive Placebos to Reduce Pain: An Experimental Study in Healthy Individuals.
Recent research has shown that placebos can be effective even if they are openly prescribed to participants. Yet, it is unclear how such "open-label placebos" (OLPs) compare to deceptive placebo (DP) and what the mechanisms of actions are. In this study, we therefore compared 2 versions of OLP to DP and no treatment (NT). ⋯ The study provided evidence for traditional placebo analgesia on the basis of deception. For OLP, we found that OLP indeed increased pain tolerance; however, participants receiving OLP were reluctant to report any subjective analgesic effects. Combined with previous studies, the present findings suggest that the effects of OLP are weaker in healthy volunteers than in clinical samples.
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Pain catastrophizing is an important predictor of pain-related outcomes. Caregiver and child levels of catastrophizing about child chronic pain are associated cross-sectionally, yet predictive associations testing interpersonal influences within caregiver-child dyads are lacking. The present study tested caregiver and child influences on partner catastrophizing about child pain over a period of 1 month following initiation of interdisciplinary pain treatment and examined whether the change in pain catastrophizing was associated with child pain interference. ⋯ In the short period following initial pain evaluation, caregivers and children evidenced reductions in pain catastrophizing, which were associated with increased child function. Findings highlight the important role of child cognitive-affective responses to pain in influencing caregiver catastrophizing about child pain. Understanding the individual contributions children and caregivers make to interpersonal pain processes will inform future family-level clinical interventions.
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Approximately 40% of children and adolescents with chronic pain report at least 1 dismissal experience, citing medical providers and parents as the primary and most distressing dismissers. Previous research indicates sex differences in pain dismissal experience and observer pain perception. This study examined parental reactions to dismissive provider-child scenarios and the influence of provider and patient sex on perceptions. ⋯ Parents consistently identified the dismissive language in a child and provider scenario. Female providers and sex-matched dyads seem to be more polarizing in terms of likelihood to bring their child to the provider and belief of pain, respectively. Providers within these groups may need to be especially cautious with their language when responding to pediatric chronic pain complaints.
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The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of repeated painful stimuli on short-term pain response in healthy, term, large for gestational age newborns by measuring the regional cerebral oxygen saturation (rScO2), and behavioral and physiological responses. ⋯ We showed that rScO2 values changed significantly within the first few days of life in babies who received more painful stimuli compared with the control group, similar to behavioral and physiological responses.
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The objective of the review is to determine whether conditioned pain modulation (CPM) is impaired in adults with chronic low back pain (CLBP) when compared with pain-free individuals. ⋯ High-quality research is strongly recommended to determine the function of endogenous pain modulatory mechanisms in CLBP.