The Clinical journal of pain
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Clinical Trial
Pain-related catastrophizing in healthy women is associated with greater temporal summation of and reduced habituation to thermal pain.
Pain-related coping strategies, especially catastrophizing, play an influential role in shaping pain responses. However, although numerous studies have examined the impact of catastrophizing on chronic pain outcomes, relatively few have evaluated relationships between individual differences in pain-related catastrophizing and pain perception, with most of those studies examining only pain threshold or pain tolerance. We assessed, for the first time, catastrophizing's association with the magnitude of temporal summation of pain, a primary marker for central nervous system sensitizability. ⋯ These preliminary findings highlight the importance of coping in shaping individuals' responses to noxious stimuli, and suggest that interventions that decrease pain catastrophizing may reduce the burden of acute and chronic pain.
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This study evaluated sleep impairment associated with painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN), a neuropathic pain condition. Sleep is of critical concern for DPN because sleep impairment and its comorbidities may influence type 2 diabetes progression. ⋯ Painful DPN is associated with considerable sleep impairment. Given the recognized association between sleep impairment, type 2 diabetes and metabolic and affective disturbance, and the known adverse impact of affective disturbance on diabetes self-care, addressing these features-pain, sleep, and affective disturbance-is an important aspect of care for patients with painful DPN.
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This study estimates the costs to society of prescription opioid analgesic (RxO) abuse in the United States. ⋯ The costs of RxO abuse represent a substantial economic burden. Rising trends of RxO abuse suggest an escalating economic and public health burden in coming years in the United States, and potentially, elsewhere.
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To assess the validity of the Protect Scale of the Adult Responses to Children's Symptoms (ARCS) Questionnaire with regard to mothers' responses to their children's abdominal pain. ⋯ Results supported the validity of the Protect Scale of the ARCS and demonstrated that mothers' protective responses to children's abdominal pain complaints at home predicted subsequent health service use for gastrointestinal symptoms.
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In comparison with men, women have a healthier lifestyle, are more rarely overweight, have less stressful occupations, or are not employed outside the home. The "gender pain bias" is the fact that women nevertheless have a higher prevalence of back pain. This paper looks at the possible underlying reasons for this as yet unexplained gender difference, using Stokols' socioecological health model as a basis. ⋯ In view of the gender difference in pain prevalence, which remains stable despite a multivariate perspective, there is clearly a need for more research into the reasons underlying the gender difference. We believe that future studies should look at rarely investigated constructs such as "sex role expectancies," "anxiety," "ethnicity," and "family history" and take anatomic differences in muscle strength into account.