Articles: chronic-pain.
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Recently, a self-rating measure for pain perception based on imagined painful daily life situations, the Pain Sensitivity Questionnaire (PSQ), has been developed and shown to correlate with experimentally obtained pain intensity ratings in healthy subjects. Here, we assessed the validity of the PSQ for investigation of general pain perception (ie, pain perception outside the site of clinical pain) in chronic pain patients. PSQ scores were obtained in 134 chronic pain patients and compared to those of 185 healthy control subjects. ⋯ Results show that PSQ scores were significantly correlated with both experimental pain intensity ratings (Pearson's r=0.71, P<.001) and experimental pain thresholds (r=-0.52, P<.001). In addition, chronic pain patients exhibited significantly elevated PSQ scores as compared to healthy controls, consistent with the generalized increase of experimentally determined pain perception that has repeatedly been reported in chronic pain patients. These results demonstrate that the PSQ constitutes a valid self-rating measure of pain perception outside the clinical pain site in chronic pain patients and might serve as an alternative to experimental assessment of pain perception outside the clinical pain site in situations where experimental pain testing is not feasible.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Jun 2012
Clinical TrialInpatient palliative care and patient pain: pre- and post-outcomes.
Hospitalized patients with serious illness often receive inadequate pain and symptom management at the end of life. ⋯ To the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to follow IPC patient pain after hospital discharge. Findings support IPC teams' effectiveness in managing pain during hospitalization but suggest a lack of continuity in pain management following discharge. Research exploring IPC patient post-discharge transition experiences will likely improve understanding of post-discharge pain outcomes.
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Questions from patients about pain conditions and analgesic pharmacotherapy and responses from authors are presented to help educate patients and make them more effective self-advocates. The topics addressed in this issue are Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and associated chronic pain; the information is meant to help readers understand the mechanisms for pain in this connective tissue disorder as well as general treatment principles for chronic pain management.
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The Journal of urology · Jun 2012
Polysymptomatic, polysyndromic presentation of patients with urological chronic pelvic pain syndrome.
Somatization disorder has been described in several comorbid functional syndromes of urological chronic pelvic pain syndrome, such as irritable bowel syndrome. We investigated whether a subset of patients with urological chronic pelvic pain syndrome may have the polysymptomatic, polysyndromic presentation pattern that is common in somatization disorder. ⋯ A subset of female patients with urological chronic pelvic pain syndrome endorses numerous extrapelvic symptoms across multiple organ systems. The checklist may be valuable to assess patients for this polysymptomatic, polysyndromic symptom pattern, which is common in somatization disorder. Recognizing this polysymptomatic, polysyndromic presentation will prompt clinicians to investigate further to determine whether somatization disorder may be an underlying diagnosis in a small subset of patients with urological chronic pelvic pain syndrome who complain of numerous extrapelvic symptoms.
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Questions from patients about pain conditions and analgesic pharmacotherapy and responses from authors are presented to help educate patients and make them more effective self-advocates. The topics addressed in this issue are pain-related anxiety, its symptoms, and possible treatment approaches.