Articles: chronic.
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Pain and emotional exhaustion are prevalent conditions with consequences for sickness absence. Although they often co-occur, their combined associations with sickness absence are poorly understood. This study aimed to examine the separate and combined associations of pain and emotional exhaustion with subsequent sickness absence. ⋯ A synergistic interaction effect was found for co-occurring pain and emotional exhaustion on medically certified sickness absence. The results for men were mainly similar, but less stable. In order to tackle sickness absence, special attention should be paid to the prevention and treatment of employees with co-occurring pain and emotional exhaustion.
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Research has shown that pain is associated with disability and that depressed mood mediates the relationship between pain and disability. The question of whether duration of pain moderates these effects was addressed in this cross-sectional study with 356 chronic pain patients. ⋯ Pain duration did not moderate the direct effect of pain on disability. Implications of these findings for the treatment of chronic pain might be that targeting depressed mood is especially relevant in chronic pain patients with longer pain duration to reduce the effect of pain on disability.
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The scope of this literature review was to assess the safety and the efficacy of spinal cord stimulation (SCS) for the treatment of chronic pain syndromes originating from refractory angina pectoris and peripheral vascular disease compared with conservative management. ⋯ SCS is a minimally invasive and reversible pain intervention. On the basis of the current literature, SCS may be an alternative treatment strategy in refractory angina pectoris and peripheral vascular disease patients, presenting a low surgical risk profile. However, further clinical trials with larger sample sizes and extended follow-up are required to confirm this finding.
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Accelerated aging has been proposed as a pathologic mechanism of various chronic diseases, including COPD. This concept has almost exclusively been approached by analyses of individual markers. We investigated whether COPD is associated with accelerated aging using a panel of markers representing various interconnected aspects of the aging process. ⋯ Markers of the aging mechanism represent distinct molecular aspects of aging. Among them, different markers were altered in COPD, but only telomere length was consistently associated with lung function, and seems a useful marker for expressing accelerated aging in COPD.
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Home oxygen therapy is a mainstay of treatment for patients with various cardiopulmonary diseases. In spite of warnings against smoking while using home oxygen, many patients sustain burn injuries. ⋯ This single-center analysis is one of the largest describing burn injuries stemming from smoking while using home oxygen therapy. We identified the morbidity and mortality associated with these injuries. Ongoing education and careful consideration of prescribing home oxygen therapy for known smokers is highly encouraged.