The Clinical journal of pain
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The purpose of this study was to compare sleep of adolescents with chronic pain and healthy adolescents using both subjective and objective sleep assessments, and to identify correlates of poor sleep. ⋯ Adolescents with chronic pain evidenced poorer sleep quality, increased insomnia symptoms, and less efficient sleep with more wake bouts in comparison with healthy adolescents, findings that require replication in a larger sample. Assessment and management of sleep disturbances is an important aspect of care for children and adolescents with chronic pain.
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Self-report is the "gold standard" for pain assessment, however, observational pain scales, such as Doloplus-2 must be used for patients who cannot communicate. In this follow-up study, we report the psychometric properties of the observational Doloplus-2 scale using the visual analog scale (VAS) pain score as a gold standard and evaluate its performance. ⋯ The observational Doloplus-2 scale correlates moderately with self-assessment pain score and has adequate internal consistency. Our data also suggest that Doloplus-2 could be substantially shortened as the brief version performed similarly to the complete Doloplus-2.
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To assess the local and referred pain areas and pain characteristics evoked from temporalis muscle trigger points (TrPs) in chronic tension-type headache (CTTH). ⋯ In CTTH patients, the evoked local and referred pain from active TrPs in the temporalis muscle and its sensory characteristics shared similar patterns as their habitual headache pain. Local and referred pain from active TrPs in the temporalis muscles may constitute one of the sources contributing to the pain profile of CTTH.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Impact of continuous low level heatwrap therapy in acute low back pain patients: subjective and objective measurements.
Muscular pain is usually associated with increased muscle tension resulting in a vicious tension-pain-cycle, leading to increased alertness and stress. However, this has not been broadly evaluated using objective methods, for example, looking at neurophysiologic changes. The focus of this study was, therefore, to combine objective [spontaneous electroencephalogram (EEG) as a surrogate of alertness and stress] with subjective parameters (self-assessed pain affected variables) to investigate the effect of continuous low-level heat therapy in low back pain (LBP)-patients. ⋯ In addition to classic psychophysical assessment of pain-related parameters and sleep quality, performance in daily life, we were able to obtain objective measures (EEG) that suggest an acute therapeutic relaxation on the basis of the central nervous system effects accompanying the reported significant pain relief. We believe that this was due to a reduced nociceptive information load in LBP-patients after the use of the heatwrap therapy.