Pain
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Electronic pain questionnaires: a randomized, crossover comparison with paper questionnaires for chronic pain assessment.
Electronic questionnaires for pain assessment are becoming increasingly popular. There have been no published reports to establish the equivalence or psychometric properties of common pain questionnaires administered via desktop computers. This study compared responses to paper (P) and touch screen electronic (E) versions of the Short-Form McGill Pain Questionnaire (SF-MPQ) and Pain Disability Index (PDI), while examining the role of computer anxiety and experience, and evaluating patient acceptance. ⋯ Anxiety and experience scores showed no significant associations through correlations and high/low comparisons. Although nearly half of subjects reported no computer training, anxiety ratings were low, and considerably more subjects rated the E questionnaires as easier and preferred. Findings are consistent with test-retest reliability data, and support the validity and acceptance of electronic versions of the SF-MPQ and PDI.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Pre-operative and post-operative effect of a pain management programme prior to total hip replacement: a randomized controlled trial.
Patients may wait some time for total hip replacement with conservative management of pain and disability, but no attempts to rehabilitate them. This study randomised 40 patients accepted for and awaiting total hip replacement to a brief rehabilitative psychologically based pain management programme (PMP) or to a control group with no intervention. Patients were assessed before randomisation, 3 months after the PMP or equivalent waiting time, and again one year later after total hip replacement. ⋯ Six patients opted to delay, but this did not differ between groups. Post-hip replacement both groups improved in pain and some aspects of activity (AIMS) with greater improvement in the PMP group for physical activity and total AIMS scores, suggesting that some techniques had continued to be of use post-surgically. Rehabilitative pain management may be useful to patients pre-operatively in managing everyday pain, but not to the extent that they opt to delay surgery; it may also improve their function after hip replacement.
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Comparative Study Clinical Trial Controlled Clinical Trial
The effects of early or late neurolytic sympathetic plexus block on the management of abdominal or pelvic cancer pain.
Neurolytic sympathetic plexus block (NSPB) has been proposed to prevent the development of pain and improve the quality of life of patients with cancer, thus questioning the WHO protocol that proposes the use of invasive methods only as a final resort. This study evaluates the pain relief, opioid consumption and quality of life provided by the use of NSPB in two different phases of cancer pain and compares them with that provided by pharmacological therapy only. Sixty patients with abdominal or pelvic cancer pain were divided into three groups and observed for 8 weeks. ⋯ Opioid-related adverse effects were significantly greater in group III (P < 0.05). The occasional neurolysis-related complications were transitory. The results suggest NSPB for the management of cancer pain should be considered earlier in the disease.
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Comparative Study
Familial aggregation of depression in fibromyalgia: a community-based test of alternate hypotheses.
Numerous studies report that fibromyalgia (FM), a syndrome characterized by widespread pain and generalized tender points, is comorbid with major depressive disorder (MDD). The current study tests two alternate explanations for their comorbidity using a family study methodology. The first is that FM is a depression spectrum disorder. ⋯ Results indicated that rates of MDD in the relatives of probands with FM but without personal histories of MDD were virtually identical to rates of MDD in relatives of probands with MDD themselves. This outcome is consistent with the hypothesis that FM is a depression spectrum disorder, in which FM and MDD are characterized by shared, familially mediated risk factors. The implications of these findings for a stress-vulnerability model of FM are discussed.
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Comparative Study
The Cheshire Foot Pain and Disability Survey: a population survey assessing prevalence and associations.
Previous foot studies have consistently reported high prevalence estimates in self-reported foot disorders. Few population studies, however, have attempted to assess the impact of foot problems in terms of pain and disability so that the burden associated with foot pain is unknown. A cross-sectional postal survey was conducted on a random community sample of 4780 individuals with 3417 (84%) responding. ⋯ Only 36% of persons with disabling foot pain received professional foot treatment in the 6 months preceding the survey. The results showed that 323/3417 (9.5%) reported symptoms of disabling foot pain and that this condition is likely to be multi-factorial in origin. Further work is necessary to understand more about the extent and type of unmet need and on how patients presenting with symptoms of disabling foot pain should best be managed.