Pain
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Spinothalamic tract cells in anesthetized monkeys were found to respond to noxious cold stimuli (18/19 cells tested), as well as to noxious heat and noxious mechanical stimuli. Responses to repetition of the noxious cold stimuli after a series of noxious heat stimuli were enhanced. ⋯ Thus, damage to a region of skin can result in enhanced responsiveness of spinothalamic cells to stimuli applied in an undamaged region of the receptive field. The possible relationship between these observations and cutaneous hyperalgesia is discussed.
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In a pain management program (200 patients), a group of daily users of oxycodone compound (29 patients) and a subgroup who were taking a "high dose" of oxycodone compound (13 patients) were compared with a group of 171 non-users of oxycodone compound. A significantly lower treatment success rate was observed in the users (P = 0.04) and high-dose users (P = 0.03). ⋯ Continued study of these findings is necessary. Meanwhile, in patients with chronic pain, there should be cautious use of this compound.
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Words related to pain were collected by asking 59 students and 18 patients to create a list by free association. Each subject was then given a dictionary-derived Finnish version of the McGill Pain Questionnaire (MPQ) with the words arranged in alphabetical order and was asked to place his own words among the dictionary-derive words which appeared most appropriate. Simultaneously, each word was allocated on a visual analogue scale (VAS) in order of increasing intensity. ⋯ Those words were chosen for the pain vocabulary which reflected a statistically significant intensity change and were most often to be found in the word-list. The same method is applicable irrespective of language. Words are replaceable by numerical values so that follow-up and renewed investigations become statistically comparable.