The Clinical journal of pain
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Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) is a rare orofacial disorder characterized by severe unilateral paroxysmal pain in the region of the fifth cranial nerve. Clinical guidelines recommend carbamazepine (only US Food and Drug Administration-approved drug for TN) and oxcarbazepine as first-line therapies. We utilized the US Truven Health MarketScan database to examine treatment patterns among patients with TN. ⋯ In the 3 years after diagnosis, patients with TN in the United States receive a variety of pharmacological treatments, including opioids, despite carbamazepine being the only approved medication. A notable proportion utilize surgeries/injections. A high proportion of pharmacologically treated patients receive multiple treatment episodes, suggesting frequent therapy switching, perhaps because of suboptimal efficacy/tolerability. Our data suggest a high burden of illness associated with TN.
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The Pain-related Cognitive Processes Questionnaire (PCPQ) provides a multifaceted assessment of different styles of pain-related attentional processing. The present study examined the construct validity of the 4 PCPQ composite scales. ⋯ The associations found in the exploratory structural equation modeling approach, as well as the PCPQ scale content and intercorrelations, support the validity of the PCPQ Pain Diversion, Pain Distancing, and Pain Focus scales. Given the lack of strong associations with the validity criteria assessed in this study, questions remain regarding the construct validity of the Pain Openness scale.
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The objective of this study was to investigate the frequency with which prediction studies for low back pain outcomes utilize prospective methods of prognostic model validation. ⋯ Unless researchers and clinicians consider sophisticated and rigorous methods of statistical/external validity for prediction/prognostic findings they will make incorrect assumptions and draw invalid conclusions regarding treatment effects and outcomes. Without proper validation methods, studies that claim to present prediction models actually describe only traits or characteristics of the studied sample.
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Reorganized force control may be an important adaptation following painful traumas. In this study, force control adaptations were assessed in elbow pain patients. Increasing the contraction demand may overcome pain interference on the motor control and as such act as an internal control. It was hypothesized that elbow pain patients compared with controls would present greater change in the direction of force when increasing the demand of the motor task. ⋯ The larger change in force direction in pain patients implies redistribution of loads across the arm as an associated effect of pain.
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To assess which psychological factors are important in the development of chronic whiplash symptoms. ⋯ Poor expectations of recovery, posttraumatic stress symptoms and passive coping emerged as the most consistent prognostic factors of chronic neck pain and/or disability after a whiplash injury. Anxiety, travel anxiety, depression, personality, precollision distress, general psychological distress, and avoidance behavior were not associated with chronic whiplash problems.