Pain
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Having higher levels of pain acceptance has been shown to be associated positively with quality of life in patients with chronic pain, but its role in adjustment to chronic pain among individuals with physical disabilities living in the community is not known. Moreover, issues related to item overlap between measures of pain acceptance and measures of patient function have limited the conclusions that can be drawn from previous research in this area. To better understand the role that pain acceptance plays in patient function, we administered measures of pain acceptance, pain intensity, depressive symptoms, and function to 392 individuals with physical disabilities, and the pain, symptom, and function measures were readministered 3.5 years later. ⋯ The findings indicate that previous research supporting the importance of pain acceptance to function in patients from health care settings extends to individuals with chronic pain living in the community. Moreover, they indicate that pain acceptance may have long-lasting (up to 3.5 years) beneficial effects on subsequent pain and function and on the association between change in pain and depression. Research to examine the potential benefits of community-based treatments that increase pain acceptance is warranted.
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Pain and emotional exhaustion are prevalent conditions with consequences for sickness absence. Although they often co-occur, their combined associations with sickness absence are poorly understood. This study aimed to examine the separate and combined associations of pain and emotional exhaustion with subsequent sickness absence. ⋯ A synergistic interaction effect was found for co-occurring pain and emotional exhaustion on medically certified sickness absence. The results for men were mainly similar, but less stable. In order to tackle sickness absence, special attention should be paid to the prevention and treatment of employees with co-occurring pain and emotional exhaustion.
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Characterising the clinical course of back pain by mean pain scores over time may not adequately reflect the complexity of the clinical course of acute low back pain. We analysed pain scores over 12 weeks for 1585 patients with acute low back pain presenting to primary care to identify distinct pain trajectory groups and baseline patient characteristics associated with membership of each cluster. This was a secondary analysis of the PACE trial that evaluated paracetamol for acute low back pain. ⋯ Belief in greater risk of persistence was associated with nonrecovery, but not delayed recovery. Higher pain intensity, longer duration, and workers' compensation were associated with persistent high pain, whereas older age and increased number of episodes were associated with fluctuating pain. Identification of discrete pain trajectory groups offers the potential to better manage acute low back pain.
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Musculoskeletal pain (MSP) is a common sequela of traumatic stress exposure. While biological factors contributing to chronic MSP after motor vehicle collision (MVC) have traditionally focused on tissue injury, increasing evidence suggests that neuro/stress/immune processes mediated by stress system activation may play a more dominant role. In a previous study, we found that genetic variants in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis-related gene FKBP5 influence vulnerability to persistent MSP 6 weeks after MVC. ⋯ In secondary analyses, a significant interaction between this CRHBP locus (minor allele frequency = 0.33) and time was observed (P = 0.015), with increasing effect observed over time following trauma. A significant CRHBP × FKBP5 interaction was also observed, with substantially increased MSP after MVC in those with a risk allele in both genes compared with either gene alone. The results of this study indicate that genetic variants in 2 different HPA axis genes predict chronic MSP severity following MVC and support the hypothesis that the HPA axis is involved in chronic post-MVC MSP pathogenesis.