Pain research & management : the journal of the Canadian Pain Society = journal de la société canadienne pour le traitement de la douleur
-
Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Reliability of the conditioned pain modulation paradigm to assess endogenous inhibitory pain pathways.
Conditioned pain modulation paradigms are often used to assess the diffuse noxious inhibitory control (DNIC) system. DNICs provide one of the main supraspinal pain inhibitory pathways and are impaired in several chronic pain populations. Only one previous study has examined the psychometric properties of the conditioned pain modulation technique and this study did not evaluate intersession reliability. ⋯ Within-session reliability of DNIC assessment using conditioned pain modulation paradigms was excellent, but the applicability of assessing pain modulation over multiple sessions was influenced by the conditioning stimulus. The cold pressor test was the superior technique.
-
Comparative Study
Experimental pain responses in children with chronic pain and in healthy children: how do they differ?
Extant research comparing laboratory pain responses of children with chronic pain with healthy controls is mixed, with some studies indicating lower pain responsivity for controls and others showing no differences. Few studies have included different pain modalities or assessment protocols. ⋯ Contextual factors related to the fixed trial may have exerted a greater influence on pain tolerance in children with chronic pain relative to controls. Children with chronic pain demonstrated a tendency toward increased arousal in anticipation of and following pain induction compared with controls.
-
With increasing knowledge of chronic pain, clinicians have attempted to assess chronic pain patients with lengthy assessment tools. ⋯ The CPEQ, either the original or modified version, yields reproducible results consistent with the results of other studies. This technique may usefully classify chronic pain patients, but more work is needed to determine the meaning of the CPEQ clusters, what psychological or biomedical variables are associated with CPEQ constructs or clusters, and whether this instrument may assist in treatment planning or predict response to treatment.