European journal of pain : EJP
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
Value of TENS for relief of chronic low back pain with or without radicular pain.
To evaluate the efficacy of transcutaneous electrical neurostimulation (TENS) in patients with chronic low back pain (LBP). ⋯ There was no functional benefit of TENS in the treatment of patients with chronic LBP.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
One-year evaluation of the effect of physical therapy for masticatory muscle pain: a randomized controlled trial.
Physical therapy is widely used to decrease pain and restore function in patients suffering from masticatory muscle pain. Controlled studies on its efficacy are scarce. This study evaluated the 1-year effect of a 6-week physical therapy programme in a single blind, randomized, controlled trial. ⋯ All pain rating variables decreased and all function variables increased significantly over time in both groups. No significant differences in improvement between the groups (time-treatment interaction) were found. These data suggest that the long-term decrease in pain and the improvement of function are not related to active physical therapy.
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The American Academy of Pediatrics states that ongoing assessment of pain is essential for adequate pain treatment. Pain assessment by means of the COMFORT behaviour scale and the Numeric Rating Scale is therefore an important component of the post-operative pain treatment protocol for neonates and infants in our intensive care unit (ICU). ⋯ The post-operative pain protocol applied in our ICU appears to be effective; however, full compliance to the protocol was marginal, possibly leading to under-treatment of pain.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Effects of sub-perception threshold spinal cord stimulation in neuropathic pain: a randomized controlled double-blind crossover study.
Recent studies suggest that perception of the paraesthesia elicited by spinal cord stimulation (SCS) is not necessarily required for the pain relieving effect. ⋯ Sub-threshold stimulation under otherwise conventional stimulation parameters has a measurable but not clinically sufficient effect. Thus, the pain relieving effect elicited by SCS is not necessarily linked to the perceptibility of stimulation but may instead be attributed to the intensity of the electric field.
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The present study examined the hyperresponsiveness of the central nervous system in patients with fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) related to mechanical hyperalgesia. The goals were to differentiate between increased pain ratings and hyperalgesia related either to peripheral or to central sensitization and to correlate with cerebral activation pattern. Seventeen patients and 17 healthy controls were examined, placing an experimental incision in the right volar forearm and causing tonic pain. ⋯ In patients with FMS, the cerebral pattern corresponding to secondary hyperalgesia was altered. The activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex was inversely correlated with secondary hyperalgesia in healthy controls (R = -0.34 p = 0.005); in patients, this correlation was disrupted (R = 0.19 p = 0.12). These findings point to an alteration of pain transmission at the central level in FMS (e.g., loss of inhibition) and might be related to changes in cerebral-midbrain-spinal mechanisms of pain inhibition.