Der Schmerz
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The evaluation of patients' satisfaction and outcome after surgery is of increasing importance. An optimized postoperative pain management may contribute substantially to this important goal. ⋯ Evaluation of patients' satisfaction with postoperative epidural pain therapy resulted in a high degree of satisfaction without correlation between patients' satisfaction and recalled maximum pain levels. These results, including side effects and special problems during pain therapy, provide motivation to further improve postoperative pain management.
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Multicenter Study
[Relationship of depression and anxiety with social desirability in chronic pain patients].
This study examines the extent of self-reported pain and psychological distress in chronic pain patients and the influence of social desirability on the data collected. ⋯ Both psychological distress and social desirability are common in chronic pain patients. Patients with high scores for social desirability reveal less depression and anxiety. The psychological distress caused by pain seems to be expressed by somatic complaints and therapy seeking. Since pain research is strongly dependent on the patient's self-report, social desirability should be considered as a factor which may impact measurements and decisions.
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This study investigated the quality criteria of a screening procedure used to identify fear-avoidance beliefs. ⋯ Fear-avoidance beliefs represent significant cognitive factors for chronification of back pain. The results demonstrated the practicability, reliability, and validity of the questionnaire to assess fear-avoidance beliefs.
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Pain in premature infants, neonates, and young children impairs their development to a great extent and may lead to long-lasting pain memories and undertreatment of pain. Up to 15 years ago, the opinion prevailed that babies -- especially neonates -- could not feel pain generally, because they could not report their pain sensations to adults and were not able to verbalize their feelings. ⋯ While in neonates and children up to 2 years standardized scales were developed for observation of their reactions, for children 3 years and older self-report scales are used to assess pain sensations. The text describes a variety of standardized pain assessment scales which fulfil the requirements of reliability and validity.
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The analgesic effects of botulinum toxin (BTX) have been discussed controversially due to substantial placebo effects and flaws in the study designs used. Additionally, pathophysiological concepts of pain and the specific analgesic mechanisms of BTX remain largely unclear. Apart from pain reduction through the well-documented effects of BTX at the neuromuscular endplate, additional analgesic mechanisms, including other synaptic and local effects, have been suggested. ⋯ In myofascial pain syndromes, pain relief by BTX injections has been reported, but definite proof according to evidence-based medicinal criteria is still lacking. In fibromyalgia, there seems to be no analgesic effect. The role of BTX in pain therapy is likely to increase in the future.