Pain
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Sex differences in chronic pain are reported to emerge during adolescence, although it is unclear if this includes responses to treatment. We conducted a meta-analysis to examine whether sex differences were present on outcome variables at pre-treatment, and whether the efficacy of psychological therapies for pediatric chronic pain differs between boys and girls at post-treatment and follow-up time points. Searches were conducted, extending two existing Cochrane reviews of randomized-controlled trials examining the efficacy of psychological therapies for chronic and recurrent pain in children and adolescents. ⋯ Treatment gains were consistent across the sexes. One exception was for post-treatment disability in children with non-headache pain conditions; girls exhibited a significant effect of treatment relative to control condition (SMD= -0.50[-0.80,-0.20], p < .01), but no such effect was observed for boys (SMD= -0.08[-0.44,0.28], p = .66). Future research should examine whether mechanisms of treatment efficacy differ between boys and girls, and consider the impact of pre-treatment sex differences on response to treatment.
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Subthalamic deep brain stimulation (STN-DBS) is used to treat refractory motor complications in Parkinson disease (PD), but its effects on nonmotor symptoms remain uncertain. Up to 80% of patients with PD may have pain relief after STN-DBS, but it is unknown whether its analgesic properties are related to potential effects on sensory thresholds or secondary to motor improvement. We have previously reported significant and long-lasting pain relief after DBS, which did not correlate with motor symptomatic control. ⋯ These sensory changes had no correlation with motor or clinical pain improvement after surgery. These data confirm the existence of sensory abnormalities in PD and suggest that STN-DBS mainly influenced the detection thresholds rather than painful sensations. However, these changes may depend on the specific effects of DBS on somatosensory loops with no correlation to motor or clinical pain improvement.
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We compared patterns of intraepidermal nerve fibers and mechanoreceptors from affected and unaffected plantar skin from patients with pachyonychia congenita (PC) and control subjects. Plantar biopsies from 10 genetically confirmed patients with PC (with a mutation in KRT6A) were performed at the ball of the foot (affected skin) and the arch (unaffected) and were compared to biopsies from corresponding locations in 10 control subjects. Tissue was processed to visualize intraepidermal nerve fibers (IENF) (PGP9.5), subsets of IENF (CGRP, substance P, tyrosine hydroxylase), myelinated nerve fiber (neurofilament H, NFH), blood vessels (CD31), Meissner corpuscles, and Merkel cells (MCs). ⋯ Pressure pain thresholds in PC-affected skin were lower compared to PC-unaffected and anatomically matched control skin. Additionally, MC densities in callused plantar skin from healthy runners with callus and one subject with a nonpainful palmoplantar keratoderma (AQP5 mutation) were similar to PC-unaffected and control skin consistent with callus alone not being sufficient to increase MC number. These findings suggest that alterations in PC extend beyond keratinocytes and may provide strategies to study neuropathic pain in PC.
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Low back pain has a life time prevalence of 70% to 85%. Approximately 10% to 20% of all patients experience recurrent episodes or develop chronic low back pain. Sociodemographic, clinical, and psychological characteristics explain the transition from acute to chronic low back pain only to a limited extent. ⋯ We included 214 patients with either acute or chronic low back pain and compared RRF between groups in both univariable and multivariable analyses adjusted for different sociodemographic and clinical characteristics possibly associated with the transition to chronic pain. We found a mean difference between patients with acute and chronic low back pain of -0.01 (95% confidence interval [CI], -0.06 to 0.04) in the crude, -0.02 (95% CI, -0.08 to 0.04) in the age and sex adjusted, and -0.02 (95% CI, -0.09 to 0.05) in the fully adjusted model. Our results suggest that the enlargement of RRF area may not be associated with the transition from acute to chronic low back pain.
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This study projected the indirect costs of back problems through lost productive life years (PLYs) from the individual's perspective (lost disposable income), the governmental perspective (reduced taxation revenue, greater welfare spending), and the societal perspective (lost gross domestic product, GDP) from 2015 to 2030, using Health&WealthMOD2030-Australia's first microsimulation model on the long-term impacts of ill-health. Quantile regression analysis was used to examine differences in median weekly income, welfare payments, and taxes of people unable to work due to back problems with working full-time without back problems as comparator. National costs and lost GDP resulting from missing workers due to back problems were also projected. ⋯ National costs consisted of a loss of AU$2931 million in annual income in 2015, increasing to AU$4660 million in 2030 (60% increase). For government, extra annual welfare payments are projected to increase from AU$1462 million in 2015 to AU$1709 million in 2030 (16.9% increase), and lost annual taxation revenue to increase from AU$671 million in 2015 to $961 million in 2030 (43.2% increase). We projected losses in GDP of AU$10,543 million in 2015, increasing to AU$14,522 million in 2030 due to back problems.