The Clinical journal of pain
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Comparative Study
Effects of producing a radiofrequency lesion adjacent to the dorsal root ganglion in patients with thoracic segmental pain.
To evaluate the effectiveness of a radiofrequency lesion adjacent to the dorsal root ganglion (RF-DRG) on a consecutive group of patients presenting with chronic thoracic pain. ⋯ There was a significantly (p < 0.05) better short-term and long-term pain relief in patients with a clearly localized pain that was confined to one or two thoracic segmental levels, compared to patients with more than two segmental levels involved in the pain syndrome.
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This study validated a measure entitled the Health Care Providers' Pain and Impairment Relationship Scale (HC-PAIRS) for assessing the attitudes and beliefs of health care providers about functional expectation for chronic low back pain patients. HC-PAIRS was developed by modifying the Pain and Impairment Relationship Scale (PAIRS) used to assess the attitudes and beliefs of chronic pain patients. ⋯ These results suggested that HC-PAIRS can be used to measure health care providers' attitudes and beliefs about the degree to which chronic low back pain justifies impairments and disability. HC-PAIRS may be useful to health care providers interested in examining this notion.
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(1) To demonstrate a relationship between intent to return to preinjury job and preinjury job perceptions about that job; and (2) to demonstrate that worker compensation chronic pain patients (WC CPPs) would be more likely than non-worker compensation chronic pain patients (NWC CPPs) not to intend to return to a preinjury type of job because of preinjury job perceptions. ⋯ There may be a relationship between some preinjury job perceptions and intent to return to the preinjury type of work in some groups of CPPs. However, a specific relationship between WC status, intent not to return to the preinjury type of work, and preinjury job perceptions in comparison to NWC CPPs could not be demonstrated.
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To demonstrate that chronic pain patients' (CPPs') perceptions about their preinjury jobs determine their intent to return to the same type of job post pain facility treatment. ⋯ There appears to be a relationship between preinjury job perceptions and intent to return to the same type of job post pain treatment. However, subgroups of CPPs will differ by which job perceptions are important towards making that decision.
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We investigated the association of physical/sexual abuse to pain description, coping, psychological distress, and health-care utilization in a heterogeneous sample of chronic pain patients. ⋯ No differences between abused and nonabused groups were found for the pain description or functional interference variables. Compared to the nonabused group, the abused group had significantly lower Self-Control Schedule scores, higher Pain Locus of Control Scale Chance Factor scores, and higher SCL-90-R Global Severity Index scores and was more likely to use the emergency room for pain symptoms. These results replicate the findings of previous studies of the effects of abuse in more specific pain samples and underscore the importance of assessment of abuse in patients with chronic pain. The data suggest that interventions which involve coping-skills training or self-control management of pain may be affected by an abuse history via reduced perceptions of efficacy, resourcefulness, and beliefs that external variables are responsible for pain.