European journal of pain : EJP
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Athletes who play contact sports are regularly exposed to pain, yet manage to perform complex tasks without significant decrement. Limited research has suggested that superior pain tolerance in contact athletes may be important in this context and this may be altered via experience of pain. Other psychological variables such as challenge states, pain bothersomeness and coping style may also influence skill execution during pain. ⋯ Athletes with even relatively small amounts of contact sport experience perform better during experimental pain than athletes who play non-contact sports. Experienced contact athletes had higher levels of direct coping and were more challenged and less threatened by pain than non-contact athletes.
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Within the Fear Avoidance Model of pain, quantitative neurophysiological factors provide additional conceptual benefit when integrated along with traditional psychologically aspects of the FAM.
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It would be desirable to identify patients with acute low back pain (ALBP) who are at high risk for transition to chronic pain early in the course of their disease. This would enable early preventive or therapeutic interventions. Patients with chronic low back pain (CLBP) display signs of central hypersensitivity. This may contribute to the transition to CLBP. We tested the hypothesis that central hypersensitivity as assessed by quantitative sensory tests predicts transition to CLBP. ⋯ We found no evidence to support a clinically relevant ability of current quantitative sensory tests to predict the transition from acute to CLBP.
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Observational Study
Spinal cord stimulation for chronic refractory pain: long-term effectiveness and safety data from a multicentre registry.
Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) is an established therapy for refractory neuropathic pain. To ascertain the balance between treatment benefits and risks, the French National Authority for Health requested a post-market registry for real-world evaluation of the long-term effectiveness and safety of the therapy. ⋯ This observational, prospective study in a real-life setting followed a large cohort of patients suffering from chronic pain and implanted with SCS devices in France. The study assessed the long-term effectiveness and safety of SCS therapy in a representative sample of implanting sites in France.