Pain
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The United States faces a crisis because of the high prevalence of chronic pain, concurrent opioid use disorder, and overdose deaths. Prescription opioids remain a primary driver of opioid-related deaths. Craving is a core symptom of addiction, yet the degree to which craving plays a role in prescription opioid use among patients with chronic pain is unknown. ⋯ We also found that craving had a small association with morphine equivalent daily dose and pain severity but was more strongly associated with depression. Craving of prescription opioids among veterans with chronic pain is complex. Findings are discussed in relation to chronic pain symptoms, psychiatric comorbidities, and demographics.
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In this case report, we used virtual reality (VR) to explore pain evoked by only the appearance of being touched (rather than actually being touched) in a person with complex regional pain syndrome type II. Furthermore, we explored the degree to which this visually evoked pain could be extinguished by applying exposure principles in VR. In stage 1, we identified 4 specific scenarios where pain was triggered by visually simulated touch (without physical stimulation) and used these scenarios to quantify baseline sensitivity to visuotactile stimulation. ⋯ This case report describes the phenomena of visually evoked pain. Moreover, it describes the near complete extinguishing of visually evoked pain through virtual graded exposure. How improvements gained in VR might be better transferred to real-word improvements merits further investigation.