European journal of pain : EJP
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Differential physiological effects during tonic painful hand immersion tests using hot and ice water.
The cold pressor test (CPT) is an empirically validated test commonly used in research on stress, pain and cardiovascular reactivity. Surprisingly, the equivalent test with water heated to noxious temperatures (hot water immersion test, HIT) has not been thoroughly investigated. The aim of the present study was to characterize the physiological effects and psychophysics of both tests and to analyze whether the autonomic responses are mainly induced by baroreflexes or a consequence of the pain experience itself. ⋯ Both tests were comparable with regard to the time course and intensity of subjective pain. However, a significantly higher increase of blood pressure could be observed during the CPT when compared to the HIT. The HIT appears less confounded with thermoregulatory baroreflex activity and therefore seems to be a more appropriate model for tonic pain.
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Chronic, unexplained pain is a common, ill-understood clinical problem. Increased sensitivity for pain and other stimuli is often implied as an underlying mechanism. Attentional processes influence central pain processing and might mediate hypersensitivity at a cerebral level. ⋯ Results support the notion that pain processing is enhanced in chronic, unexplained pain, and that the influence of attentional modulation on pain processing is attenuated. Potential cerebral mechanisms are changes in either attentional allocation or attention-mediated descending pain modulation. The changes seem to occur at a generalised level.
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While human infants can display distinctive behavioural and physiological spinal cord and brainstem responses to noxious stimulation, it is not known whether cortical neurons are specifically activated by noxious stimuli in newborns. Here, using a novel approach to time-lock an EEG recording to a clinically required heel lance, we show the presence of a distinct nociceptive-specific potential in newborn infants (35-39 weeks postmenstrual age). ⋯ The magnitude of the nociceptive-specific potential is not dependent on sleep state, whereas an earlier potential (N150-P260-N430), which is sleep-state dependent, is evoked by both noxious and non-noxious stimulation. These results provide the first direct evidence of specific noxious-evoked neural activity in the infant brain and suggest that newborn infants are capable of the sensory-discriminative aspects of pain experience.
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A high opioid consumption for cancer related and acute pain may indicate adequate pain treatment. Analysis of a national, compulsory and complete database of all dispensed prescription drugs in Norway (NorPD) may reveal important epidemiological data on prescription pattern of opioids. This study investigated the prevalence of opioid dispensions in 2004-2007 and explored patterns of use. ⋯ From these prescription patterns it can be concluded that the majority of patients received opioids for acute, non-cancer pain.
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It is important to understand the processes that contribute to disability and distress in adolescents with chronic pain. For example, research has identified that when adolescents can positively adapt to the consequences of health condition, rather than attempt to change the condition itself, they also function better and experience less distress. This pattern of behavior is similar to what is referred to as "acceptance" of pain in the adult literature. ⋯ Regression analyses were carried out to assess the independent contribution of acceptance after pain intensity and demographic variables were taken into account. In these analyses acceptance accounted for significant variance in disability, psychological distress, and developmental and family functioning. We discuss developmental aspects of acceptance in adolescents and clinical implications of these findings.