Pain research & management : the journal of the Canadian Pain Society = journal de la société canadienne pour le traitement de la douleur
-
Randomized Controlled Trial
Tough guys or sensitive guys? Disentangling the role of examiner sex on patient pain reports.
Experimental and clinical pain studies are conflicting regarding whether individuals report heightened or dampened pain sensitivity in the presence of other men or women. ⋯ These preliminary findings warrant larger-scale investigations of social contextual influences on patient pain reports, which are necessary for creating more standardized protocols for reliably assessing and treating patient pain experiences.
-
Randomized Controlled Trial
Impaired modulation of pain in patients with postherpetic neuralgia.
The efficiency of inhibitory pain descending pathways (evaluated using conditioned pain modulation [CPM]) has not been studied in postherpetic neuralgia (PHN). ⋯ Psychophysical and electrophysiological approaches have shown that patients with PHN exhibit a deficiency of pain inhibition modulation, which could signal a predisposing factor to developing chronic pain. This deficiency was not linked to the cognitive performance but rather to subtle in situ cognitivoemotional adaptations, which remain to be investigated.
-
Headaches are a major concern for which psychosocial interventions are recommended. However, headache sufferers do not always have ready access to these interventions. Technology has been used to improve access, especially in young people. ⋯ The results provide insight into a participatory design to guide design decisions for the type of intervention for which success relies largely on self-motivation. The results also provide recommendations for design of similar interventions that may benefit from the integration of mobile applications to Internet-based interventions. The present research contributes to the theoretical frameworks that have been formulated for the development of Internet-based applications.
-
The Pain Response Preference Questionnaire (PRPQ) assesses preferences regarding pain-related social support. The initial factor analytical study of the PRPQ produced four empirically supported scales labelled Solicitude, Management, Encouragement and Suppression. A second study produced similar findings, but suggested that the Management and Encouragement scales be combined into a single scale labelled Activity Direction. ⋯ The PRPQ has promise as a clinical assessment measure and for advancing research examining the interpersonal context of pain.
-
There is limited information regarding the relationship between parent and child responses to laboratory pain induction in the absence of experimental manipulation. ⋯ The results indicate that mother-child pain relationships are centred primarily on pain avoidance behaviour, particularly among prepubertal children. These findings may inform interventions focused on pain behaviours, with a particular emphasis on mothers of prepubertal children, to reduce acute pain responses in their children.