European journal of pain : EJP
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Exploration of conditioned pain modulation effect on long-term potentiation-like pain amplification in humans.
This study aimed to explore conditioned pain modulation (CPM) effect on long-term potentiation (LTP)-like pain amplification induced by cutaneous 10-Hz conditioning electrical stimulation (CES). ⋯ Conditioned pain modulation (CPM) may play a role in inhibiting the pain amplificatory process at the central nervous system and prompting central desensitization. CPM has a special inhibition effect for the development of perception amplification to non-painful mechanical stimuli.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Effects of subtle cognitive manipulations on placebo analgesia - An implicit priming study.
Expectancy is widely accepted as a key contributor to placebo effects. However, it is not known whether non-conscious expectancies achieved through semantic priming may contribute to placebo analgesia. In this study, we investigated if an implicit priming procedure, where participants were unaware of the intended priming influence, affected placebo analgesia. ⋯ Our findings challenge the role of semantic priming as a behavioural modifier that may shape expectations of pain relief, and affect placebo analgesia.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Applying causal mediation methods to clinical trial data: What can we learn about why our interventions (don't) work?
Many randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of psychosocial interventions for low back pain (LBP) have been found to have only small effects on disability outcomes. Investigations of the specific mechanisms that may lead to an improvement in outcome have therefore been called for. ⋯ This study presents a step-by-step approach to mediation analysis using the causal inference framework to investigate why a psychosocial intervention for LBP was unsuccessful. Fear-avoidance beliefs were found to mediate the relationship between treatment and disability, although not when controlling for baseline scores.