European journal of pain : EJP
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To survey the prevalence of pain in patients admitted to different hospitals of Catalonia and to describe which factors are related to pain. ⋯ A high prevalence of clinically relevant pain in in-patients was found as well as a great variability according to type of patients, clinical wards and hospitals. This study gives clear evidence of the lack of adequate management of pain in the majority of the hospitals and calls for the implementation of organisational and educational measurements that may settle this epidemic problem.
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Post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN) following acute herpes zoster remains a significant cause of neuropathic pain especially in the elderly. Early treatment of the zoster rash with antiviral agents, such as aciclovir remains one of the few measures proven to reduce the incidence and duration of PHN albeit only in a subset of patients. It is therefore crucial that the physician who first sees a case of zoster identifies those patients who are most likely to develop long-term pain and treats them accordingly. ⋯ A visual analogue score (VAS) over 5 and/or age over 50 correctly identified all subjects with PHN at 3 and 6 months, respectively. However, the specificity of this prediction was low because as many as 81% and 85% of those aged over 50 recovered within 3 and 6 months, respectively. Better methods are needed to identify patients over 50 at most risk of PHN that enable GPs to better allocate their resources with respect to HZ treatment.
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The number of old and very old persons is increasing and there is evidence that aging coincides with chronic painful conditions. Pain induces behavioural disorders that have been so far poorly identified in old and even less in very old animals. ⋯ The correlation between observational and experimental pain scores stresses the reliability of non-invasive measures for pain evaluation in senescent populations. The dichotomy between neuropathic and acute pain perceptions with age needs to be further investigated and would help to better understand the reasons of this uneven pain perception and expression with age.