Pain practice : the official journal of World Institute of Pain
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Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) can be distinguished as type I without and type II with electrophysiological evidence of major nerve lesion. The pathophysiology of both subgroups is still under investigation. The aim of this research is to demonstrate the nerve morphology and electrophysiology in CRPS type I patients. ⋯ The lower SNAP and CMAP amplitudes of the median and ulnar nerves compared to the healthy side and the prolongation of the affected side median and ulnar nerve distal motor latencies of the affected individuals may indicate axonal involvement in patients with CRPS type 1. Decreased CMAP amplitudes may also indicate muscle atrophy due to a decrease in the number of functional motor units.
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To investigate and characterize the incidence of needlestick injuries (NSI) in a sample of practicing pain medicine physicians, with the ultimate goal of aiding to prevent these injuries by raising awareness of their prevalence. ⋯ This study characterizes NSIs in a population of pain medicine physicians. These data warrant caution and will hopefully raise awareness amongst providers.
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The objective of the study was to determine the associations of depression and anxiety with chronic pain among U.S. adults. ⋯ The presence of chronic pain in adults associated with significantly higher severity scores for both anxiety and depression as measured by validated surveys in a nationally representative sample. The same is true for the association between chronic pain and an adult taking medication for depression and/or anxiety. These data highlight the impact of chronic pain has on psychological well-being within the general population.
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Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) has been proven to be an effective treatment for patients suffering from intractable chronic neuropathic pain. Recent advances in the field include the utilization of programs that multiplex various signals to target different neural structures in the dorsal spinal cord associated with the painful area. Preclinical studies have been fundamental in understanding the mechanism by which this differential target multiplexed programming (DTMP) SCS approach works. Transcriptomic- and proteomic-based studies demonstrated that DTMP can modulate expression levels of genes and proteins involved in pain-related processes that have been affected by a neuropathic pain model. This work studied the effect of the intensity of DTMP signals on mechanical hypersensitivity and cell-specific transcriptomes. ⋯ DTMP when applied at either 40% MT or 70% MT provided similar reduction of pain-like behavior in rats and similar effects in neuron- and glia-specific transcriptomes.