Articles: neuralgia.
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Meta Analysis
Efficacy and Safety of N-acetylcysteine for the Management of Chronic Pain in Adults: A Systematic Review & Meta-analysis.
To assess the efficacy and safety of N-acetylcysteine in the treatment of chronic pain. ⋯ While there is some evidence to indicate N-acetylcysteine may provide analgesic efficacy for certain pain conditions, there is insufficient evidence to provide definitive evidence on NAC in chronic pain management. Larger-size RCTs spanning a variety of chronic pain conditions are needed to determine N-acetylcysteine's role, if any, in pain medicine.
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It is simple, convenient, inexpensive, proven, extensive, and safe for acupuncture in the treatment of postherpetic neuralgia (PHN). However, there are no comparisons between various acupuncture therapies that can directly and effectively provide specific guidance to clinicians. The development of a guideline for the optimization of acupuncture for PHN is of great importance for the development of clinical acupuncture. Therefore, we attempted to design a study protocol for a network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials of acupuncture for PHN to provide evidence to support the treatment of acupuncture for PHN. ⋯ This study will provide comprehensive and reliable evidence-based evidence for the treatment of PHN with acupuncture.
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Meta Analysis
Efficacy of ketamine in relieving neuropathic pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis of animal studies.
In humans, proof of long-term efficacy of ketamine treatment in neuropathic pain is lacking. To improve our understanding of ketamine behavior under various administration conditions, we performed a systematic review and meta-analyses of controlled studies on the efficacy of ketamine in mice and rats with a disease model of nerve injury on relief of allodynia. Searches in PubMed and EMBASE identified 31 unique studies. ⋯ No subgroups analyses were possible in the last 3 meta-analyses due to small group sizes. These results indicate long-term ketamine anti-allodynic effects after chronic exposure (>3 days) but not after a single administration. Given several limitations, extrapolation of the animal data to the human condition is tenuous.
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Meta Analysis
Acupuncture and moxibustion combined with cupping for the treatment of post-herpetic neuralgia: A meta-analysis.
There are still controversies between the curative effect of acupuncture combined with cupping therapy and western medicine for post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN). Our meta-analysis fully incorporates the research of acupuncture combined with cupping therapy versus Western medicine for PHN, aiming to explore the difference in the efficacy of the 2 therapies, so as to provide guidance for clinical treatment. ⋯ The effect of acupuncture and moxibustion combined with cupping in the treatment of PHN is significantly higher than that of conventional western medicine, and it can significantly prevent the occurrence of PHN. Chinese medicine should be used more widely in the treatment of PHN.
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Review Meta Analysis
Human surrogate models of central sensitization: a critical review and practical guide.
As in other fields of medicine, development of new medications for management of neuropathic pain has been difficult since preclinical rodent models do not necessarily translate to the clinics. Aside from ongoing pain with burning or shock-like qualities, neuropathic pain is often characterized by pain hypersensitivity (hyperalgesia and allodynia), most often towards mechanical stimuli, reflecting sensitization of neural transmission. ⋯ Being able to mimic aspects of pathological pain directly in humans has a huge potential to understand pathophysiology and provide animal research with translatable biomarkers for drug development. One group of human surrogate models has proven to have excellent predictive validity: they respond to clinically active medications and do not respond to clinically inactive medications, including some that worked in animals but failed in the clinics. They should therefore inform basic research for new drug development.