Pain
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Randomized Controlled Trial
The downside to choice: instrumental control increases conditioned nocebo hyperalgesia.
Nocebo hyperalgesia is a pervasive problem in which the treatment context triggers negative expectations that exacerbate pain. Thus, developing ethical strategies to mitigate nocebo hyperalgesia is crucial. Emerging research suggests that choice has the capacity to reduce nocebo side effects, but choice effects on nocebo hyperalgesia have not been explored. ⋯ The positive choice information failed to attenuate the effect of choice on nocebo hyperalgesia. The current results suggest that, rather than decreasing nocebo hyperalgesia, treatment choice may exacerbate pain outcomes when a painful procedure is repeatedly administered. As such, using choice as a strategy to mitigate nocebo outcomes should be treated with caution.
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Growing evidence from pharmacovigilance data and postmortem toxicology reports highlights the misuse potential of gabapentinoids. This study aimed to investigate the risk of serious adverse outcomes (drug misuse, overdose, major trauma), and their risk factors, in primary care patients who are prescribed gabapentinoids. Using the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink, a matched cohort study calculated adverse event rates separately for gabapentinoid-exposed and unexposed cohorts. ⋯ The association with overdose was stronger for pregabalin than gabapentin. All adverse outcomes were significantly associated with smoking, history of substance misuse, overdose, or a mental health condition and prescription of opioids, benzodiazepines, antidepressants, and Z-drug hypnotics (eg, gabapentin hazard ratios for association of concurrent opioid use: misuse 1.49 [1.47-1.51]; overdose 1.87 [1.78-1.96]; major trauma 1.28 [1.26-1.30]). Our findings highlight the importance of careful patient selection when prescribing gabapentinoids and the need to educate prescribers about the risks of these drugs, particularly in combination with other central nervous system depressants.
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Negatively biased pain memories robustly predict maladaptive pain outcomes in children. Both attention bias to pain and parental narrative style have been linked with the development of these negative biases, with previous studies indicating that how parents talk to their child about the pain might buffer the influence of children's attention bias to pain on the development of such negatively biased pain memories. This study investigated the moderating role of parental narrative style in the relation between pain-related attention and memory biases in a pediatric chronic pain sample who underwent a cold pressor task. ⋯ Opposite effects were observed for youth with low levels of attention bias to pain. Current findings corroborate earlier results on parental reminiscing in the context of pain (memories) but stress the importance of matching narrative style with child characteristics, such as child attention bias to pain, in the development of negatively biased pain memories. Future avenues for parent-child reminiscing and clinical implications for pediatric chronic pain are discussed.
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Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) affect approximately half of all children worldwide. These experiences have been linked to increased pain sensitivity in adulthood and a higher likelihood of developing severe chronic pain. However, most studies have assessed the effects of ACEs retrospectively, long after they occurred, leaving room for other factors to influence the observed outcomes. ⋯ Children with higher PTSS severity displayed pain hypersensitivity regardless of their traumatic exposure level, whereas in children with lower PTSS severity, greater traumatic exposure correlated with pain hypersensitivity. The results suggest that ACEs among children lead to concurrent pain hypersensitivity and distress and may put them at elevated risk of chronic pain early in life. In addition, our findings emphasize the need for identifying children with various PTSS levels to provide tailored interventions and mitigate the long-term negative effects of ACEs.
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Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is common in patients with chronic pain, adversely affects chronic pain outcomes, and is associated with opioid use and adverse opioid outcomes. Social support is a robust predictor of PTSD incidence and course as well as chronic pain outcome. We determined whether the association between PTSD and persistent opioid use was modified by emotional support in a cohort of patients receiving opioids for noncancer pain. ⋯ In fully adjusted models, PTSD was no longer associated with opioid use at 6-month follow-up among participants with high emotional support. Among those with lower emotional support, PTSD was significantly associated with opioid use at 6-month follow-up in unadjusted (odds ratio = 2.40; 95% confidence interval: 1.24-4.64) and adjusted models (odds ratio = 2.39; 95% confidence interval: 1.14-4.99). Results point to the hypothesis that improvement of emotional support in vulnerable patients with chronic pain and PTSD may help reduce sustained opioid use.