Der Schmerz
-
Testing the validity of the Mainz Pain Staging System (MPSS) is often carried out by pain classification according to chronic stage. It is assumed that pain syndromes distribute equally over the chronic stages. This analysis was carried out to answer three questions: Do different pain syndromes vary in chronicity, do the four axes of the MPSS differ between pain syndromes, and are there any specific item responses with respect to a pain syndrome? ⋯ Using pain stages of the MPSS as an experimental factor in studies of pain, it is imperative either to control pain syndromes or to confine to a single pain syndrome, to avoid confusion between pain syndromes and severity of pain chronification.
-
The objective of this study was to evaluate the clinical outcome of CT-guided radiofrequency- (RF-)thermocoagulation of cervical zygapophysial joints for chronic non radicular cervical pain syndrome using an improved posterior approach. ⋯ CT-guided radiofrequency thermocoagulation is an effective, precise and secure, minimally invasive treatment for non radicular cervical pain that is caused by zygapophysial joint arthropathy, when CT-guided, lateral drug instillation does not cause a lasting improvement.
-
A structured German-language interview was developed for the assessment of painful and non-painful phantom and stump phenomena after amputation. The aim was a thorough assessment of the quality, quantity and time course of these phenomena, which is of scientific as well as therapeutic relevance. ⋯ The phantom and stump phenomena interview is a highly reliable and valid instrument to assess present perceptual phenomena after amputation. Only the included retrospective scales apparently show low stability scores over time. This raises the more general question of the validity of retrospective pain reports.
-
The term "neuralgia of the occipital nerve" in clinical work includes different kinds of pain in the occipital region. Correctly, this diagnosis should be reserved for such pain syndromes which, corresponding to the definition of neuralgia, are due to damage of the cervical roots C1-C3 or of the major occipital nerve arising from those roots. We introduce an operative method to treat chronic therapy-resistant headaches in the area of the major and minor occipital nerve. The courses of three of the first patients operated in our hospital are described. ⋯ The epifacial stimulation of the occipital nerve is an effective method to treat neuralgia of this nerve. Patients with destruction of the nerve have to be excluded, because in their cases the stimulation does not work.
-
Comparative Study Clinical Trial Controlled Clinical Trial
[Music therapy for chronic headaches. Evaluation of music therapeutic groups for patients suffering from chronic headaches].
This paper presents a new approach to music therapeutic treatments. We developed a short time treatment ( 8 group sessions) for patients suffering from chronic headaches. The multimodal concept of this headache treatment and particularly the effect of a sound trance on headache patients are explained and evaluated in this paper. ⋯ The results indicate that music therapy groups are more successful than a waiting group. The study's results agree with numerous other psychological evaluation studies and shows once more that music therapists working with patients suffering from chronic headaches are able to achieve successful results particularly long-dated. Thus, creative therapeutic approaches supplement the medical treatment, as they help the patients to develop an adaptive way of coping their pain. Yet, it will need further research to confirm the benefit of music therapy for patients suffering from chronic pain.