Articles: chronic.
-
Meta Analysis
Potential role of blood biomarkers in patients with fibromyalgia: a systematic review with meta-analysis.
Fibromyalgia (FM) is a complex chronic pain condition. Its symptoms are nonspecific, and to date, no objective test exists to confirm FM diagnosis. Potential objective measures include the circulating levels of blood biomarkers. ⋯ Nevertheless, this systematic literature review and meta-analysis could not support the notion that these blood biomarkers are specific biomarkers of FM. Our literature review, however, revealed that these same individual biomarkers may have the potential role of identifying underlying pathologies or other conditions that often coexist with FM. Future research is needed to evaluate the potential clinical value for these biomarkers while controlling for the various confounding variables.
-
Pain sensitivity and the brain structure are critical in modulating pain and may contribute to the maintenance of pain in older adults. However, a paucity of evidence exists investigating the link between pain sensitivity and brain morphometry in older adults. The purpose of the study was to identify pain sensitivity profiles in healthy, community-dwelling older adults using a multimodal quantitative sensory testing protocol and to differentiate profiles based on brain morphometry. ⋯ While sufficient evidence exists demonstrating pain sensitivity profiles in younger individuals and in those with chronic pain conditions, the finding that subgroups of experimental pain sensitivity also exist in healthy older adults is novel. Identifying these factors in older adults may help differentiate the underlying mechanisms contributing to pain and aging.
-
Chronic pain, cognitive deficits, and pain-related disability are interrelated. The prevalence of chronic pain and undiagnosed cognitive difficulties in middle age and older adults is increasing. Of the cognitive systems, executive function and episodic memory are most relevant to chronic pain. We examined the hypothesis that cognitive screening composite scores for executive function and memory would negatively associate with pain intensity and pain disability in a group of middle-aged and older adults with knee pain with or at risk for osteoarthritis. ⋯ The results of the current study demonstrates associations between pain metrics and cognitive domain scores within a common cognitive screening tool.
-
Meta Analysis
Association of Non-Obstructive Chronic Bronchitis with All-Cause Mortality: A Systematic Literature Review and Meta-Analysis.
The effect of nonobstructive chronic bronchitis (CB) on mortality is unclear. ⋯ Nonobstructive CB is associated with increased all-cause mortality, and this association seems to be present only in current and former smokers. Further research should investigate whether this high-risk population may benefit from early therapeutic intervention.
-
Pain chronicity is considered an important prognostic factor for outcome. Here, it was investigated whether pain duration influences outcome when only chronic patients (pain >3 months) are considered. Secondary aims were to determine, in patients of any pain duration, how much variance in outcome is explained by pain duration and whether pain duration truly predicts outcomes, that is out-of-sample prediction in independent data. ⋯ The relatively large dataset of neck pain patients challenges the widely accepted wisdom that pain duration is an important predictor of pain outcomes and that very chronic patients might only have a small likelihood of getting better. It is postulated that these results are important for the attitude of the first encounter between healthcare professionals and chronic patients.