Pain medicine : the official journal of the American Academy of Pain Medicine
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To assess the impact of the empathy of physicians, perceived by patients with chronic pain, regarding pain relief and health-related quality of life (HR-QoL). ⋯ Physicians' empathy and patients' dispositional optimism have a role in determining positive outcomes in patients with chronic pain. Physicians' empathy may therefore be a suitable, yet relatively unexplored, target for intervention.
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Comparative Study Observational Study
Unsolicited Reporting to Prescribers of Opioid Analgesics by a State Prescription Drug Monitoring Program: An Observational Study with Matched Comparison Group.
State prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) can help detect individuals with multiple provider episodes (MPEs; also referred to as doctor/pharmacy shopping), an indicator of prescription drug abuse and/or diversion. Although unsolicited reporting by PDMPs to prescribers of opioid analgesics is thought to be an important practice in reducing MPEs and the potential harm associated with them, evidence of its effectiveness is mixed. This exploratory research evaluates the impact of unsolicited reports sent by Massachusetts' PDMP to the prescribers of persons with MPEs. ⋯ This study suggests that PDMP unsolicited reporting to prescribers can help reduce risk measures in patients' prescription histories, which may improve health outcomes for patients receiving opioid analgesics from multiple providers.
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The aim was to validate the short PTSD-8 scale against the Structured Clinical Interview (SCID-1) for post-traumatic stress disorder and to test the latent structure of post-traumatic stress disorder in chronic pain patients. ⋯ Overall, the results showed that the PTSD-8 is a valid short screening tool to assess possible post-traumatic stress disorder among patients with chronic pain. In addition, the PTSD-8 scale comprises all of the upcoming ICD-11 post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms within its eight items. Thus, the PTSD-8 is likely also to measure the proposed ICD-11 post-traumatic stress disorder.
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To determine if a history of severe episodic low back pain (LBP) correlates with positive discography. ⋯ A positive history of severe episodic LBP may be a strong indicator for a discogenic etiology.
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Because an increase of patients who misuse opioids has been identified in our cancer clinical setting through urine drug testing (UDT) and the Screener and Opioid Assessment for Patient's with Pain-Short Form (SOAPP-SF), we conducted this retrospective cohort study to identify patient characteristics that are associated with UDT that indicates noncompliance. ⋯ History of ETOH use, anxiety, high SOAPP-SF score, and younger age were associated with UDT that indicates noncompliance. Given the very small percentage of UDT testing, it is quite likely that a significant number of patients who did not undergo UDT were also nonadherent with treatment recommendations.