European journal of pain : EJP
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Pain assessment and treatment is challenging and can be influenced by patient demographic characteristics. Few research studies have been able to specifically examine these influences experimentally. The present study investigated the effects of patients' sex, race, age, and pain expression on healthcare students' assessment of pain and pain-related sequelae using virtual human (VH) technology. ⋯ VH technology and the lens model design were shown to be highly effective in examining individuals' decision-making policies. Pain assessment often varied among individuals based on patient demographic and facial expression cues. This study could serve as a model for future investigations of pain assessment and treatment in healthcare students and providers.
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Musculoskeletal pain in multiple sites is common already in adolescence, and may lead to subsequent musculoskeletal complaints in adulthood. We examined predictive factors for the persistence of multiple musculoskeletal pains in adolescence over a 2-year time span. A postal questionnaire was administered to a subsample of the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1986 (n=1773) when subjects were aged 16 and 18. ⋯ In the multivariate analysis, emotional and behavioral problems (internalizing problems, OR 2.3; externalizing problems, OR 2.2), and high sitting time (OR 1.6) among boys, and internalizing problems (OR 3.7), high physical activity level (OR 1.6), short sleeping time (OR 1.7), and smoking (OR 1.9) among girls were predictive factors for the persistence of multiple pains. No statistically significant associations between the baseline variables and new-onset multiple pains were found. Multiple musculoskeletal pains appear to have a high tendency to persist in adolescence; both psychosocial factors and lifestyle factors contribute to this vulnerability.
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Mental motor imagery is subserved by the same cognitive systems that underlie action. In turn, action is informed by the anticipated sensory consequences of movement, including pain. In light of these considerations, one would predict that motor imagery would provide a useful measure pain-related functional interference. ⋯ Relative to normal and pain control subjects, arm/shoulder pain subjects were significantly slower for stimuli that required greater amplitude rotations. For the arm/shoulder pain subjects only there was a correlation between degree of slowing and the rating of severity of pain with movement but not the non-specific pain rating. The hand laterality task may supplement the assessment of subjects with chronic arm/shoulder pain.
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The study evaluated the ability of the Pain Stages of Change Questionnaire (PSOCQ) to classify subjects into specific profiles of readiness to adopt a self-management approach to pain. An analysis was made of whether the five earlier described PSOCQ-profiles Precontemplation, Contemplation, Non-contemplative Action, Participation and Ambivalent could be reproduced by two different methods, cluster analysis and visual analysis. The 184 included subjects completed the PSOCQ, the Hopkins Symptom Checklist (HSCL-25), the Tampa scale of Kinesiophobia (TSK) and five self-efficacy questions from the arthritis self-efficacy questionnaire (ASES). ⋯ Non-contemplative Action share characteristics with Precontemplation, and the Contemplation group has scores in between. In conclusion, more research on the validity of the PSOCQ is needed. Outcome studies after pain treatment programmes could focus three main states that differ on measures for concurrent validity: Profiles that can be identified as Precontemplation or Non-contemplative action, Contemplators, and subjects with Participation profiles.
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Flavonoids are increasingly ingested by the population as chemotherapeutic and anti-inflammatory agents. Myricetin is a naturally occurring flavonoid known for its anti-neoplastic and anti-inflammatory effects. Recently, behavioral studies indicate a potential analgesic effect in animal models of pain. ⋯ In contrast, higher (10-100 μM) concentrations of myricetin induced an increase of I(Ca(V)) (20-40%), which was blocked by inhibition of p38, but not of PKC. We conclude that myricetin transiently reduces established neuropathic pain behavior. This analgesic effect may be related to its PKC-induced decrease of I(Ca(V)) in DRG neurons.