Pain
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Clinical Trial Controlled Clinical Trial
The relationship of phantom limb pain to other phantom limb phenomena in upper extremity amputees.
In thirty-two unilateral upper extremity amputees with and without phantom limb pain, various phantom limb phenomena were investigated. In general, the incidence of non-painful phantom limb sensations was higher in patients with phantom limb pain than in pain-free amputees. Kinesthetic and kinetic phantom limb sensations were reported more frequently than exteroceptive cutaneous sensations. ⋯ Patients more frequently assigned sensory than affective pain qualities to their phantom limb pain, whereas no differences between pain qualities were observed for stump pain. No support was found for a relationship between the presence of telescoping (i.e., shrinkage of the phantom limb) and phantom limb pain. These findings point to central as well as to peripheral factors contributing to phantom limb pain.
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This manuscript describes the development and initial validation of a self-report questionnaire designed to assess an individual's readiness to adopt a self-management approach to their chronic pain condition. Theory and preliminary empirical work informed the development of a pool of items that were administered to a sample of individuals reporting chronic pain. ⋯ Each of the four factors, precontemplation, contemplation, action, and maintenance, was found to be internally consistent and stable over time. There was also substantial support for each factor's discriminant and criterion-related validity.
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Wallerian degeneration is required for both neuropathic pain and sympathetic sprouting into the DRG.
Chronic loose constriction of the sciatic nerve produces mechanoallodynia and thermal hyperalgesia in rats and mice, and the behaviour develops during the time in which the nerve distal to the ligature site is undergoing Wallerian degeneration. There is a sympathetic component to the pain generated by this and other rodent models of neuropathic pain, yet the site at which this sympathetic-sensory coupling remains unknown. It has been shown that following sciatic nerve transection or spinal nerve lesion, sympathetic axons invade the dorsal root ganglion (DRG) where they sometimes form pericellular baskets around mostly large diameter DRG neurons--a possible anatomical substrate for sympathetically maintained pain (SMP). ⋯ We found that both indices of neuropathic pain were significantly attenuated in Wld mice compared to wild-type mice, with the wild-type mice increasing in sensitivity to both thermal and mechanical stimulation in the first week post-operative (PO), while Wld mice showed marked hypoalgesia following CCI. Histological examination of the DRG showed that sympathetic sprouting into the DRG was also markedly delayed in Wld mice compared to wild-type mice: 1 week following injury, sympathetic fibres had invaded the ipsilateral DRG of wild-type mice, while sprouting in ipsilateral DRG of Wld mice was only slightly increased at 3 weeks PO. These results show that Wallerian degeneration is tightly linked to the development of both pain and sympathetic sprouting following CCI, and we speculate on the possible role of NGF as a mediator of both phenomena.
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Morphine (M) and hydromorphone (HM) are commonly used opioid analgesics for cancer pain. Opioid rotation is often necessary in the event of toxicity and/or inadequate analgesia. Equianalgesic reference tables based on single dose comparisons are possibly inadequate for patients on chronic treatment and developing tolerance. ⋯ Our data suggests that HM is 5 times more potent than M when given second (M-HM), but is only 3.7 times more potent when given first (HM-M). We therefore recommend a ratio of 5 for M/HM in rotating from M to HM and ratio of 3.7 for M/HM when rotating from HM to M in patients exposed to chronic dosing of these opioids. There was no correlation observed between M-HM and HM-M dose ratios and the level of previous opioid dose, in contrast to HM to methadone rotation where the dose ratio was higher in patients receiving higher doses of HM.
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Despite its importance in clinical practice, little research has examined memory for pain in children. This prospective study tried to justify the use of children's pain recall in clinical practice. The purpose of this study was to (a) investigate the accuracy of children's recall of their worst and average pain intensity when controlling for the effects of repeated pain measurement and (b) examine the influence of children's anxiety, age, general memory ability and pain coping strategies on this accuracy. ⋯ The accuracy of children's recalled pain intensities was high and showed little decrement over 1 week. Older children had more accurate recall of their worst pain intensity. Anxiety, general memory ability and pain coping strategies were not related to accuracy of recalled pain intensities.