The Clinical journal of pain
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Staircase-evoked Pain may be More Sensitive than Traditional Pain Assessments in Discriminating Analgesic Effects: A Randomized, Placebo-controlled Trial of Naproxen in Patients with Osteoarthritis of the Knee.
Analgesic trials often fail to show a significant effect even when medications with known efficacy are tested. This could be attributed to insufficient assay sensitivity of analgesic trials, which may be due, in part, to the insensitivity of pain-related outcome measures. The aim of this methodological study was to assess the responsiveness of evoked pain generated by the staircase procedure compared with other commonly used pain outcomes in knee osteoarthritis. ⋯ Study results support our hypothesis that evoked pain using the StEPP may demonstrate greater responsiveness to treatment effects compared with traditional pain-related outcome measures. Accordingly, these results may facilitate development and validation of other chronic pain-related evoked pain models, which could contribute to future research and development of new analgesics.
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The effects of eccentric exercises on clinical outcomes and central pain mechanisms are unclear in neck/shoulder pain (NSP). The aims were to: (1) evaluate the clinical impact of unilateral eccentric training in female computer users with chronic NSP; (2) compare pressure pain sensitivity, temporal summation of pain (TSP); and conditioned pain modulation (CPM) in female office workers with and without NSP; and (3) assess sensitization and central pain responses after training. ⋯ Eccentric training improved pain and disability, reduced sensitization, and enhanced CPM efficiency in female computer users with NSP.
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Accurate assessment of pain in young children is challenging. An Emotion Application Programing Interface (API) can analyze and report 8 emotions from facial images. Each emotion ranges between 0 (no correlation) to 1 (greatest correlation). We evaluated correlation between the Emotion API with the FLACC scale (face, lets, activity, cry, and consolability) among children younger than 6 years old during blood sampling. ⋯ During a blood test procedure, young children show higher SADNESS and lower NEUTRAL emotions as reported by the Emotion API. This software program may be useful in reporting emotions related to pain in young children, and more research is needed to compare its validity, reliability and real-time application compared to the FLACC scale.
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Urine drug testing (UDT) is recommended for patients who are prescribed opioid medications, but little is known about the various strategies clinicians use to respond to aberrant UDT results. We sought to examine changes in opioid prescribing and implementation of other risk reduction activities following an aberrant UDT. ⋯ The majority of clinicians enacted some type of opioid prescribing or other change to reduce risk following an aberrant UDT, and the action depended on whether the result was an aberrant positive or aberrant negative UDT. Experimental studies are needed to develop and test strategies for managing aberrant UDT results.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study
Comparison of Preoperative Administration of Pregabalin and Duloxetine on Cognitive Functions and Pain Management after Spinal Surgery: A Randomized Double-blind Placebo-controlled Study.
Surgical trauma is known to induce hyperalgesia, and if pain management is insufficient, it contributes to persistent pain in the postoperative period.In this study, our primary aims were to compare the effect of pregabalin and duloxetine on postoperative pain scores and cognitive functions. Our secondary aim was to determine drug-related side effects. ⋯ Preoperative use of duloxetine 60 mg can be an useful alternative to pregabalin 75 mg, as it has a similar analgesic effect on postoperative pain, with fewer incidences of drug-related negative effects on cognitive function.