The journal of pain : official journal of the American Pain Society
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Comment Review Meta Analysis
Chiropractic spinal manipulation for neck pain: a systematic review.
Chiropractic spinal manipulation (CSM) is often used as a treatment for neck pain. However, its effectiveness is unclear. The aim of this article was to evaluate systematically and critically the effectiveness of CSM for neck pain. ⋯ The 2 long-term studies compared CSM with exercise therapy. None of the 4 trials convincingly demonstrated the superiority of CSM over control interventions. In conclusion, the notion that CSM is more effective than conventional exercise treatment in the treatment of neck pain was not supported by rigorous trial data.
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Review Meta Analysis
Management of opioid side effects in cancer-related and chronic noncancer pain: a systematic review.
Side effects can limit opioid dosage and reduce quality of life. The purpose of this systematic review was to assess the management of opioid side effects in the context of cancer pain management or, in the event that no evidence was available for cancer pain, for chronic noncancer pain. The side effects studied were constipation, pruritus, nausea and vomiting, myoclonus, sedation, respiratory depression, and delirium. ⋯ The lack of well-designed, randomized controlled trials and the heterogeneity of populations and study designs made the drawing of firm conclusions difficult and precluded performance of meta-analysis. The type, strength, and consistency of evidence for available interventions to manage opioid side effects vary from strong (eg, on the use of naloxone to reverse respiratory depression or constipation) to weak (eg, changing from the oral to epidural route of morphine administration to manage sedation). Well-designed trials in the specified populations are required to furnish clinicians with secure evidence on managing opioid side effects successfully.
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To be most useful, clinical trials of cancer pain treatments should use pain measures that are both reliable and valid. A great variety of measures are now available that may be used to assess cancer pain. However, there are not yet any clear guidelines for selecting one or more measures over the others. ⋯ Composite measures that combine ratings of pain intensity and pain interference into a single score appear to be both valid and reliable for describing patient populations, although their usefulness in clinical trials may be limited because they can obscure the contributions of intensity and interference to the total score. Proxy measures of cancer pain (pain ratings made by someone other than the patient) may be useful when patients are not able to provide pain ratings, but they should not be used as replacements for patient ratings when patient self-report measures are available. The discussion includes specific recommendations for selecting from among the available pain measures, as well as recommendations for future research into the assessment of cancer pain.