European journal of pain : EJP
-
A core aspect of the clinical assessment of pain is establishing how long pain has been present for. The reported length of pain can therefore influence diagnosis and treatment. Despite this, little is known about how chronic pain affects the passage of time. ⋯ This study examined how chronic pain impacts on the experience of time. Chronic pain substantially slowed the passage of time for most people, subjectively lengthening the period of time that pain lasted for, exacerbating distress. Given the importance of time processing in clinical assessments of pain, medication adherence and therapeutic interventions, these findings underscore the importance of raising awareness about altered temporal processing in patients and clinicians.
-
The aims of this bibliometric analysis were (1) a longitudinal analysis of the publication landscape in the field of pain (1975-2020) and (2) to characterize the overall publication profiles for two selected journals: European Journal of Pain and PAIN® utilizing an automated approach. ⋯ The bibliometric analysis of a pain journal provides information on which specific areas of research are published, how this may have changed over the years and how a journal is positioned compared with other journals in the field.
-
Fibromyalgia (FM) is a chronic pain disorder of unknown aetiopathogenesis, in which the role of activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis is not clearly established. ⋯ This is the first study to assess hair cortisol concentrations in a specific sample of patients with fibromyalgia (FM). This method is especially useful for the assessment of long-term regular cortisol excretion. Results showed a two-component model for explaining cortisol levels: disease chronicity, with a negative effect, and symptom severity, with a positive effect. This suggests that severe pain/stress evokes higher cortisol levels at earlier stages of FM, while in the longer term a decrease in cortisol levels was observed.
-
Review Meta Analysis
The importance of context (placebo effects) in conservative interventions for musculoskeletal pain: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
Contextual effects (e.g. patient expectations) may play a role in treatment effectiveness. This study aimed to estimate the magnitude of contextual effects for conservative, non-pharmacological interventions for musculoskeletal pain conditions. A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that compared placebo conservative non-pharmacological interventions to no treatment for musculoskeletal pain. The outcomes assessed included pain intensity, physical functioning, health-related quality of life, global rating of change, depression, anxiety and sleep at immediate, short-, medium- and/or long-term follow-up. ⋯ Contextual effects of non-pharmacological conservative interventions for musculoskeletal conditions are likely to be small for a broad range of patient-reported outcomes (pain intensity, physical function, quality of life, global rating of change and depression). Contextual effects are unlikely, in isolation, to offer much clinical care. But these factors do have relevance in an overall treatment context as they provide almost 30% of the minimally clinically important difference.