European journal of pain : EJP
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Editorial Biography Historical Article
In Memoriam Jean-Marie Besson 1938-2014.
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The spinal cord is a prime site of action for analgesia. Here we characterize the effects of established analgesics on segmental spinal reflexes. The aim of the study was to look for the pattern of action or signature of analgesic effects on these reflexes. ⋯ morphine and duloxetine had general depressant effects on spinal reflexes, whereas the effects of clonidine, pregabalin and S1RA appeared to be restricted to signals originated by strong repetitive activation of C-fibres. Results are discussed in the context of reported behavioural effects of the compounds studied.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Does the addition of visceral manipulation alter outcomes for patients with low back pain? A randomized placebo controlled trial.
This study aimed to investigate whether the addition of visceral manipulation, to a standard physiotherapy algorithm, improved outcomes in patients with low back pain. ⋯ Our study suggests that visceral manipulation in addition to standard care is not effective in changing short-term outcomes but may produce clinically worthwhile improvements in pain at 1 year.
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An influential idea is that attentional bias to information related to pain or pain-related negative affect underlies persistent pain problems. Such information is however often ambiguous. If ambiguous input is perceived as pain or threat related, attention to this stimulus would be enhanced compared with stimuli with no (dominant) pain-/threat-related meaning. Attentional bias to ambiguous stimuli related to somatic/health threat was expected to be more pronounced with higher levels of pain catastrophizing. ⋯ Low catastrophizers demonstrated attentional bias to threat content. Participants reporting higher catastrophizing showed overall enhanced attentional orienting. There was no evidence for differences in (biased) attention to unambiguous and ambiguous words. Further research is needed to determine attentional bias for ambiguous pain-/threat-related stimuli in the context of consistent attentional bias for unambiguous pain-/threat-related stimuli.