European journal of pain : EJP
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Although reproducibility is considered essential for any method used in scientific research, it is investigated only rarely; thus, strikingly little has been published regarding the reproducibility of evoked pain models involving human subjects. Here, we studied the reproducibility of a battery of evoked pain models for demonstrating the analgesic effects of two analgesic compounds. ⋯ The consistency and reproducibility of measuring the profile of an analgesic at clinically relevant doses illustrates that this pain test battery is a valid tool for demonstrating the analgesic activity of a test compound and for determining the optimal active dose in early clinical drug development.
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Most studies fail to show an association between higher levels of pain-related fear and protective movement behaviour in patients with chronic low back pain (CLBP). This may be explained by the fact that only general measures of pain-related fear have been used to examine the association with movement patterns. This study explored whether task-specific, instead of general measures of pain-related fear can predict movement behaviour. ⋯ This study shows that lumbar range of motion in CLBP is predicted by task-specific, but not by general measures of pain-related fear. This suggests that both in clinical practice and for research purposes, it might be recommended to use task-specific measures of pain-related fear when assessing the relationship with movement behaviour. This may help to disentangle the complex interactions between pain-related fear, movement and disability in patients with CLBP.
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Identifying the physical impairments associated with worse symptoms and greater functional limitations in people with hip pain could enable targeted rehabilitation programmes designed to improve quality of life. The objective of this study was to compare physical characteristics between subgroups of symptoms and functional limitation severity in individuals with hip pain scheduled for arthroscopic surgery. ⋯ Individuals with severe hip pain and functional limitation possess significantly lesser muscle strength and flexion ROM than individuals with moderate or mild scores.
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Patient-Reported Outcome (PRO) instruments have been developed to evaluate pain management in daily practice; the Patients' Global Impression of Change (PGIC) is particularly recommended by the Initiative on Methods, Measurement, and Pain Assessment in Clinical Trials. The prospective non-interventional multicenter PRO-QURE study aimed at assessing correlations between PGIC and pain measurements and treatment effects in patients followed in French pain centres. ⋯ Clinically important improvement in peripheral neuropathic pain, as assessed by PGIC scores, significantly correlated with well-established measures of pain intensity, pain interference in daily life and treatment efficacy. This result, associated with the ease of administration and scoring, encourages the widespread use of the PGIC in daily practice.
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Neuropathic mechanisms are involved in burning mouth syndrome (BMS), and variation of the dopamine D2 receptor (DRD2) gene contributes to experimental pain perception. We investigated whether neurophysiologic findings differ in BMS patients compared to healthy controls, and whether 957C>T polymorphism of the DRD2 gene influences thermal sensitivity or pain experience in BMS. ⋯ The results confirm earlier findings of neuropathic pain in BMS. The DRD2 957 C>T genotype influences perception and experience of clinical pain in BMS.