Pain
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Chronic pain has been linked to depression among individuals and their partners. Yet, little is known about long-term mutual influences between pain intensity and depressive symptoms within couples as they age. Using a nationally representative U. ⋯ There were also partner effects such that husbands' greater pain intensity at baseline was associated with increases in wives' depressive symptoms over time. Findings highlight the importance of considering both individual and spousal associations between pain intensity and depressive symptoms in later life. Understanding how individual and couple processes unfold may yield critical insights for the development of intervention and prevention efforts to maintain mental health among older chronic pain patients and their spouses.
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The human commensal microflora plays an essential role in modulating the immune response to control homeostasis. Staphylococcus epidermidis, a commensal bacterium most commonly associated with the skin exerts such effects locally, modulating local immune responses during inflammation and preventing superinfection by pathogens such as Staphylococcus aureus. Although the prostate is considered by many to be sterile, multiple investigations have shown that small numbers of gram-positive bacterial species such as S. epidermidis can be isolated from the expressed prostatic secretions of both healthy and diseased men. ⋯ Here, we report that intraurethral instillation of a specific S. epidermidis strain (designated NPI [non-pain inducing]), isolated from the expressed prostatic secretion of a healthy human male, into EAP-treated mice reduced the pelvic tactile allodynia responses and increased CD4+ve IL17A+ve T-cell numbers associated with EAP. Furthermore, a cell wall constituent of NPI, lipoteichoic acid, specifically recapitulates these effects and mediates increased expression of CTLA4-like ligands PDL1 and PDL2 on prostatic CD11b+ve antigen-presenting cells. These results identify a new potential therapeutic role for commensal S. epidermidis NPI lipoteichoic acid in the treatment of prostatitis-associated pain.
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The aim of this study was to examine a possible relationship between early puberty and chronic nonspecific pain in 13- to 18-year-old girls. All adolescents in Nord-Trøndelag County, Norway, were invited to participate in the Young-HUNT3 study (2006-2008). Of the invited girls, 81% answered the questionnaire and of these 3982 were 13 to 18 years of age. ⋯ A similar association was found between girls that perceived themselves as earlier physically matured than their peers and chronic nonspecific pain. Headache/migraine was the most common type of chronic nonspecific pain regardless of menarcheal age. In all reported locations, pain was more prevalent in the group with early menarche compared to normal or late menarche.