Pain medicine : the official journal of the American Academy of Pain Medicine
-
There is increasing evidence that the cerebellum has a role in pain processing. The present study investigates whether chronic pain patients, who are likely to have altered pain processing, exhibit signs of subtle cerebellar dysfunction. We used oculomotor tasks to assess dysfunction of the associated neuronal networks, including the cerebellum. ⋯ Our results show that chronic spinal pain patients display subtle but significant oculomotor changes as compared with healthy controls. Considering the networks involved in the generation of saccades and smooth pursuit, the results would be consistent with a dysfunction of cerebellar regions, especially parts of the cerebellar hemispheres. Alternatively, they could also point toward a dysfunction in the frontal eye field and/or pontine oculomotor nuclei.
-
Pain diary assessment in sickle cell disease (SCD) may be expensive and impose a high respondent burden. ⋯ It is possible to simulate five- to six-month daily assessment of pain in SCD. Either one-day-per-week or one-week-per-month assessment yields an equivalent mean and fair regression equivalence.