Articles: chronic.
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Cancer-related neuropathic pain is prevalent in up to 40% of patients with advanced disease. Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) is used to treat chronic pain when other treatments are ineffective. ⋯ Additionally, all parts of SCS can potentially interfere with radiotherapy delivery. We present a case of successful administration of radiotherapy to a patient without damaging the SCS device implanted in proximity to the target lesion.
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Meta Analysis
Cognitive biases among those with frequent or chronic headaches or migraines: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to determine the pattern of cognitive processing biases (ie, attentional, interpretation, and memory bias) towards headache and pain information observed in individuals with frequent or chronic headaches or migraines, compared with individuals without. We identified 11 studies (total N = 841). Most studies (10 of 11) assessed attentional bias. ⋯ Overall, the findings confirm an attentional bias for headache-related stimuli among people with headache, with some evidence for interpretation bias but equivocal evidence for a memory bias. For attentional biases, eye-tracking studies found evidence for biases in initial orienting. We provide suggestions for how to extend the current research to better understand cognitive biases in chronic headache.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
A randomized controlled trial on long-term effectiveness of a psychosocial aftercare program following pediatric chronic pain treatment: Who benefits the most?
For paediatric chronic pain patients, intensive interdisciplinary pain treatment (IIPT) is a well-established treatment. The treatment's short-term effectiveness can be improved by an additive psychosocial aftercare (PAC). However, neither the program's long-term effectiveness nor the patients in particular need have been investigated yet. ⋯ A psychosocial aftercare following paediatric IIPT leads to significantly better pain and emotional outcomes compared to treatment as usual up to 12 months after discharge, especially for patients with single parents.
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Chronic pain is a major healthcare issue posing a large burden on individuals and society. Converging lines of evidence indicate that chronic pain is associated with substantial changes of brain structure and function. However, it remains unclear which neuronal measures relate to changes of clinical parameters over time and could thus monitor chronic pain and treatment responses. ⋯ Thus, changes in chronic pain might be reflected by global network changes in the theta band. These longitudinal insights further the understanding of the brain mechanisms of chronic pain. Beyond, they might help to identify biomarkers for the monitoring of chronic pain.
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Habituation is a response decrement resulting from repeated stimuli. Reduced habituation to noxious stimuli is considered to be a proxy for central sensitization in subjects with chronic pain. Despite numerous investigations of pain habituation in relation to central sensitization, there is no consensus on the most sensitive and reliable readout, as well as analysis approach. Therefore, this study compared the usability and reliability of different readouts and habituation analysis approaches to measure pain habituation in response to repetitive heat simulation. ⋯ Heat-induced SSR as a measure of pain-autonomic interaction revealed the strongest pain habituation and showed the highest test-retest reliability.