Pain medicine : the official journal of the American Academy of Pain Medicine
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The objective of this project was to develop core competencies in pain assessment and management for prelicensure health professional education. Such core pain competencies common to all prelicensure health professionals have not been previously reported. ⋯ These competencies can serve as a foundation for developing, defining, and revising curricula and as a resource for the creation of learning activities across health professions designed to advance care that effectively responds to pain.
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Given the increase in misuse and abuse of prescription opioids, clinicians clearly benefit from a standardized tool to screen patients being considered for chronic opioid therapy. The Screener and Opioid Assessment for Patients with Pain-Revised (SOAPP-R) is a widely used opioid risk assessment tool in clinical practice. As one third of the US population experiences chronic noncancer pain at any given time, and the Hispanic population now accounts for about 16% of the nation's population, the availability of a Spanish-language SOAPP-R fills an important clinical need. ⋯ The Spanish SOAPP-R may be useful as a risk assessment tool, considered along with other clinical information, by clinicians who prescribe opioid therapy for patients whose preferred language is Spanish.
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Painful HIV distal sensory polyneuropathy (HIV-DSP) is the most common nervous system disorder in HIV patients. The symptoms adversely affect patients' quality of life and often diminish their capacity for independent self-care. No interventions have been shown to be consistently effective in treating the disorder. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether hypnosis could be a useful intervention in the management of painful HIV-DSP. ⋯ Brief hypnosis interventions have promise as a useful and well-tolerated tool for managing painful HIV-DSP meriting further investigation.
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The present study was aimed at the issue of whether peripheral nerve injury-induced chronic pain is maintained by supraspinal structures governing descending facilitation to the spinal dorsal horn, or whether altered peripheral nociceptive mechanisms sustain central hyperexcitability and, in turn, neuropathic pain. We examined this question by determining the contribution of peripheral/spinal mechanisms, isolated from supraspinal influence(s), in cutaneous hypersensitivity in an animal model of peripheral neuropathy. ⋯ Our findings demonstrate an aberrant peripheral/spinal mechanism that induces and maintains thermal and to a greater degree tactile cutaneous hypersensitivity in the cuff model of neuropathic pain, and raise the prospect that altered peripheral/spinal nociceptive mechanisms in humans with peripheral neuropathy may have a pathologically relevant role in both inducing and sustaining neuropathic pain.