Articles: neuralgia.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Dental impaction pain model as a potential tool to evaluate drugs with efficacy in neuropathic pain.
Intravenous lidocaine, a nonspecific Na-channel blocker, was used to assess the dental impaction model for evaluation of neuropathic pain drugs. Sixty patients, experiencing moderate or severe pain after removal of > or = 2 third molars, were randomized (2:2:1:1) to lidocaine (4 mg/kg; maximal dose 300 mg), oxycodone/acetaminophen (10/650 mg), placebo, and active placebo (diphenhydramine, 50 mg). ⋯ A significantly greater effect over placebo was observed in peak effect and at shorter time points (30 minutes and 1 hour), consistent with the pharmacokinetic profile (plasma concentration of approximately 2 mug/mL). Oxycodone/acetaminophen provided significantly greater analgesia versus placebo, validating study conduct, and significantly greater pain relief was observed versus lidocaine, which is consistent with a smaller portion of dental extraction pain being of neuropathic origin.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Basal heat pain thresholds predict opioid analgesia in patients with postherpetic neuralgia.
A variety of analgesics have been studied in the treatment of postherpetic neuralgia, with several medications demonstrating some degree of efficacy. However, existing trials have documented large individual differences in treatment responses, and it is important to identify patient characteristics that predict the analgesic effectiveness of particular interventions. Several animal studies have indicated that reduced basal nociceptive sensitivity, in the form of relatively high heat pain thresholds, is associated with greater opioid analgesia, but this finding has not been applied to human studies of opioid treatment for chronic pain. ⋯ These findings, which will require replication, suggest that pretreatment assessment of heat pain sensitivity might prove useful in identifying those patients most likely to respond to opioids.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study Comparative Study
A Phase II, multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover study of CJC-1008--a long-acting, parenteral opioid analgesic--in the treatment of postherpetic neuralgia.
CJC-1008 is a chemical modification of the opioid peptide dynorphin A (1-13) (Dyn A) that promotes dynorphin's covalent attachment to human serum albumin in vivo after administration, thus prolonging its duration of action. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the preliminary efficacy and safety of CJC-1008 as compared with placebo in patients with postherpetic neuralgia (PHN). ⋯ This study provides evidence of a greater analgesic effect when using CJC-1008 compared to placebo in patients with PHN. However, the effect only lasted through eight hours postdose and diminished by 24 hours. This study provides evidence of a peripheral action of dynorphin, since CJC-1008 does not cross the blood-brain barrier.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
A sham-controlled, phase II trial of transcranial direct current stimulation for the treatment of central pain in traumatic spinal cord injury.
Past evidence has shown that motor cortical stimulation with invasive and non-invasive brain stimulation is effective to relieve central pain. Here we aimed to study the effects of another, very safe technique of non-invasive brain stimulation--transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS)--on pain control in patients with central pain due to traumatic spinal cord injury. Patients were randomized to receive sham or active motor tDCS (2mA, 20 min for 5 consecutive days). ⋯ Furthermore, cognitive performance was not significantly changed throughout the trial in both treatment groups. The results of our study suggest that this new approach of cortical stimulation can be effective to control pain in patients with spinal cord lesion. We discuss potential mechanisms for pain amelioration after tDCS, such as a secondary modulation of thalamic nuclei activity.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
[Comparison of efficacy of gabapentin and amitriptyline in the management of peripheral neuropathic pain].
In this single center, double blind and randomized trial gabapentin as a new anticonvulsant was compared in efficacy and safety with amitriptyline which is a classic agent in neuropathic pain treatment. Fourty six patients with neuropathic pain which was burning, stabbing and shooting in quality were allocated to take gabapentin (group GBP) and amitriptyline (group AMI) monotherapy. The assesment variables were burning, stabbing, shooting pain on visual analog scale (VAS; 0: no pain, 10: worst pain imaginable), allodynia as present or not by lightly touching the skin with cotton. ⋯ Both gabapentin and amitriptyline provided effective pain control in peripheral neuropathic pain. Additionally gabapentin was more effective especially in paroxysmal shooting pain than other pain qualities. And also gabapentin was tolerated well.