Pain medicine : the official journal of the American Academy of Pain Medicine
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Randomized Controlled Trial
The efficacy of transforaminal injection of steroids for the treatment of lumbar radicular pain.
Transforaminal injection of steroids is used to treat lumbar radicular pain. Not known is whether the route of injection or the agent injected is significant. ⋯ Transforaminal injection of steroids is effective only in a proportion of patients. Its superiority over other injections is obscured when group data are compared but emerges when categorical outcomes are calculated. Over time, the proportion of patients with maintained responses diminishes.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
painACTION-back pain: a self-management website for people with chronic back pain.
To determine whether an interactive self-management Website for people with chronic back pain would significantly improve emotional management, coping, self-efficacy to manage pain, pain levels, and physical functioning compared with standard text-based materials. ⋯ An online self-management program for people with chronic back pain can lead to improvements in stress, coping, and social support, and produce clinically significant differences in pain, depression, anxiety, and global rates of improvement.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Plasma adrenaline increases in anesthetized patients given electro-acupuncture before surgery.
In anesthetized patients, electro-acupuncture (EA) has been found to reduce sevoflurane-induced suppression of cranial and spinal motor responses to surgery without influencing the level of anesthesia. The underlying mechanisms are unclear. In the present study, blood samples were analyzed to evaluate if the increased clinical motor responses to surgery in patients subjected to EA under sevoflurane anesthesia are also reflected in higher plasma levels of catecholamines, adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH), or cortisol. ⋯ The clinical facilitation of both cranial and spinal motor responses to surgery in patients given acupuncture under sevoflurane anesthesia is associated with increased plasma levels of adrenaline, possibly reflecting sympathetic activation.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Single-dose pharmacokinetics of fentanyl buccal soluble film.
The objectives of the study were to determine the absolute bioavailability of fentanyl from fentanyl buccal soluble film, estimate the percentage of a fentanyl dose absorbed through the buccal mucosa, and compare the bioavailability of equivalent doses administered either as single or multiple dose units. ⋯ Fentanyl buccal soluble film effectively delivers a high percentage of the administered fentanyl dose and nearly identical plasma profiles are obtained when equivalent doses are delivered by single or multiple dosage units.
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To evaluate the efficacy of a novel variant of electroencephalograph biofeedback, the Low Energy Neurofeedback System (LENS), that utilizes minute pulses of electromagnetic stimulation to change brainwave activity for the amelioration of fibromyalgia (FM) symptoms. ⋯ LENS cannot be recommended as a single modality treatment for FM. However, further study is warranted to investigate the potential of LENS to interact synergistically with other pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic therapies for improving symptoms in FM.