European journal of pain : EJP
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Concerning chronic low back pain (CLBP), different cognitive-behavioral models have hypothesized that coping strategies play a role in the chronification of pain by changes in physical activity. Strategies such as avoidance - or persistent coping may be related to changes in (lumbar) muscle activity. ⋯ In CLBP, a maladaptive coping strategy like "catastrophizing" is related to increased lumbar muscle activity, and an adaptive strategy like "distraction" to increased lumbar muscle relaxation during walking.
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Patients with neuropathy, report changes in sensory perception, particularly mechanical and thermal allodynia, and spontaneous pain. Similar sensory changes are seen in experimental neuropathies, in which alteration in primary afferent properties can also be determined. The neural correlate of spontaneous pain is ongoing activity in sensory afferents. ⋯ The afferent barrage associated with mechano-cooling-sensitive afferents was increased 26-fold 7 days after nerve injury. We observed no differences in the properties of intact A fibre mechanosensitive afferents. These studies demonstrate for the first time that the altered nociception seen after PSNI is associated with ongoing activity and enhanced cooling-evoked activity in intact C fibre afferents in the saphenous nerve, with no concurrent alteration in A fibre afferents.