The Clinical journal of pain
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To identify and summarize the tools currently available for diagnosing and assessing neuropathic pain (NP) in adults and children and to identify areas where further research is required to address deficiencies in the existing tools. ⋯ This article summarizes the various screening and assessment tools available to clinicians for evaluating NP. Despite the availability of the 15 tools discussed, a deficiency remains, particularly in the pediatric realm. To date, there is no well-validated NP assessment tool for children younger than 5 years, no pediatric NP screening tool that has been validated outside the domain of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy, and no consistent recommendation regarding the optimal tool to use with pediatric patients who have chronic pain. These areas, as well as others, would benefit from further research and development.
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Review Meta Analysis
Postoperative Analgesia via a Transversus Abdominis Plane Block Using Different Concentrations of Ropivacaine for Abdominal Surgery: A Meta-analysis.
Transversus abdominis plane block (TAPB) has been proven to be an effective means of postoperative anesthesia, but the optimum effective concentration of ropivacaine warrants further research. ⋯ In terms of efficacy and safety, the use of 0.375% ropivacaine for TAPB is preferred in the clinical work.
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To test whether change in fear-avoidance beliefs was a mediator of the effect of treatment on disability outcome, and to test an analytical approach, latent growth modeling, not often applied to mediation analysis. ⋯ Fear-avoidance beliefs were found to mediate the effect of treatment on disability outcome. Measurement of all potential mediator variables in future studies would help to more strongly identify which factors explain observed treatment effects. Latent growth modelling was found to be a useful technique to apply to studies of treatment mediation, suggesting that future studies could use this approach.
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Pain catastrophizing has been associated with higher pain intensity, increased risk of developing chronic pain and poorer outcomes after treatment. Despite this, the mechanisms by which pain catastrophizing influences pain remain poorly understood. It has been hypothesized that pain catastrophizing may impair descending inhibition of spinal level nociception. The aims of this study were to compare spinal nociceptive processing in people with chronic widespread pain and pain-free controls and examine potential relationships between measures of pain catastrophizing and spinal nociception. ⋯ Despite increased excitability and decreased inhibition of spinal nociception in patients with chronic widespread pain, we could find no evidence of a significant relationship between pain catastrophizing and measures of spinal nociceptive processing.
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Observational Study
Symptoms of Depression and Risk of Low Back Pain: A Prospective Co-twin Study.
To investigate whether symptoms of depression increase the risk of low back pain (LBP), after adjusting for genetic and environmental influences. ⋯ The magnitude of the association between depression and LBP seems to be small and may be confounded by genetic and early shared environment influences, although firm conclusions could not be made due to small sample size in the case-control analysis. In addition, the observed association is dependent on the method of assessment used for both conditions.