Pain medicine : the official journal of the American Academy of Pain Medicine
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
Single-entity hydrocodone extended-release capsules in opioid-tolerant subjects with moderate-to-severe chronic low back pain: a randomized double-blind, placebo-controlled study.
A single-agent, extended-release formulation of hydrocodone (HC) has been developed for treatment of chronic moderate-to-severe pain. This study was designed to examine the safety and efficacy of HC extended release in opioid-experienced adults with moderate-to-severe chronic low back pain (CLBP). ⋯ Extended-release HC is well tolerated and effective, without acetaminophen-associated risks of liver toxicity, for treatment of CLBP.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
A randomized controlled trial of single point acupuncture in primary dysmenorrhea.
Acupuncture is often used for primary dysmenorrhea. But there is no convincing evidence due to low methodological quality. We aim to assess immediate effect of acupuncture at specific acupoint compared with unrelated acupoint and nonacupoint on primary dysmenorrhea. ⋯ Specific acupoint acupuncture produced a statistically, but not clinically, significant effect compared with unrelated acupoint and nonacupoint acupuncture in primary dysmenorrhea patients. Future studies should focus on effects of multiple points acupuncture on primary dysmenorrhea.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
The effect of cognitive load and patient race on physicians' decisions to prescribe opioids for chronic low back pain: a randomized trial.
To test the hypothesis that racial biases in opioid prescribing would be more likely under high levels of cognitive load, defined as the amount of mental activity imposed on working memory, which may come from environmental factors such as stressful conditions, chaotic workplace, staffing insufficiency, and competing demands, one's own psychological or physiological state, as well as from demands inherent in the task at hand. ⋯ Physician gender affected the way in which patient race and cognitive load influenced decisions to prescribe opioids for chronic pain. Future research is needed to further explore the potential effects of physician gender on racial biases in pain treatment, and the effects of physician cognitive load on pain treatment.
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In the absence of a suitable reference standard, diagnostic local anesthetic blocks cannot be validated in the manner conventionally used for diagnostic tests. Consequently, diagnostic blocks are vulnerable to criticism for lacking validity, or being "not proven." ⋯ The eight criteria provide an axiomatic, philosophical basis for diagnostic blocks in general, and serve to show what empirical evidence needs to be gathered in order to validate a particular block. The associated metric allows the scientific evidence for different blocks to be quantified and compared.
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Our study examined the effect of health care workers' personal characteristics on how they perceive and intend to treat patients' pain in the intensive care unit. Though pain perceptions have been well established from the patient's perspective, less is known about how variations in health care workers may affect their perceptions of pain. ⋯ Health care providers' race, age, level of education, and medical subspecialty were significant factors affecting their perceptions of pain management and intended treatment.