The Clinical journal of pain
-
Sleep disturbance is a common problem among chronic pain patients. Cross-sectional data from clinical populations and experimental studies have shown an association between sleep disturbance and pain. However, there has been little prospective research into the relationship between daily variability between sleep and pain among chronic pain patients. ⋯ Prospective examination supported a bidirectional relationship between sleep and pain among a group of women with chronic pain. Depressive symptoms had a moderating impact on these relationships. These findings suggest that addressing sleep is important in the treatment of individuals with chronic pain.
-
It is likely that people with chronic pain who have low self-efficacy have a worse prognosis. A standard, high-quality measure of self-efficacy in such populations would improve evidence, by allowing meaningful comparisons amongst subgroups and between treatments, and by facilitating pooling across studies in systematic reviews. ⋯ Further research should focus on assessing responsiveness and interpretability of these questionnaires. Researchers should select questionnaires that are most appropriate for their study aims and population and contribute to further validation of these scales. Future research should measure outcome expectancy alongside self-efficacy to best predict future behavior.
-
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study
Subjective well-being in patients with chronic tension-type headache: effect of acupuncture, physical training, and relaxation training.
Episodic tension-type headache is a common problem affecting approximately 2 of 3 of the population. The origin of tension-type headache is multifactorial, but the pathogenesis is still unclear. In some individuals episodic tension-type headache transforms into chronic tension-type headache (CTTH). Subjective symptoms related to the central nervous system might affect patients subjective well-being and quality of life. ⋯ Physical training and relaxation training seem to be preferable nonpharmacologic treatments for improvement of central nervous system-related symptoms and subjective well-being for patients with CTTH.
-
Randomized Controlled Trial
Effectiveness of leech therapy in chronic lateral epicondylitis: a randomized controlled trial.
Leech therapy has been found to be effective in osteoarthritis of the knee and hand in previous trials. Chronic epicondylitis is a prevalent pain syndrome with limited treatment options. In this study, we tested whether leech therapy would be beneficial in the symptomatic treatment of chronic lateral epicondylitis. ⋯ A single course of leech therapy was effective in relieving pain in the short-term and improved disability in intermediate-term. Leeches might be considered as an additional option in the therapeutic approach to lateral epicondylitis.
-
Randomized Controlled Trial
Differential frequency effects of strong nonpainful transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation on experimentally induced ischemic pain in healthy human participants.
Electrophysiological studies show frequency-dependent effects of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) in animal models of hyperalgesia. Evidence of frequency-dependent effects of TENS in humans is conflicting. ⋯ Strong nonpainful TENS delivered at 80 pps reduced experimentally induced ischemic pain when compared with TENS delivered at 3 pps.