European journal of pain : EJP
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Effectiveness of an 8-week exercise programme on pain and specificity of neck muscle activity in patients with chronic neck pain: A randomized controlled study.
Although exercise can be effective for relief of neck pain, little is known about the effect of exercise on the neural control of neck muscles. ⋯ An exercise programme that aims to enhance motor control of the cervical spine improves the specificity of neck muscle activity and reduces pain and disability in patients with neck pain.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Betamethasone in hernia surgery: A randomized controlled trial.
Post-operative pain and nausea may be a problem in day-case surgery. This study aims to investigate the effect of betamethasone on pain and nausea in inguinal hernia surgery. ⋯ A 12 mg betamethasone reduced pain during the first 24 h and at 1 month after inguinal hernia surgery. If combined with diclofenac, however, this dose may increase the risk for bleeding complications.
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Our previous data have indicated that nerve injury-induced up-regulation of thrombospondin-4 (TSP4) proteins in dorsal spinal cord plays a causal role in neuropathic pain state development in a spinal nerve ligation model. To investigate whether TSP4 proteins also contribute to the development of centrally mediated changes in nociception after spinal cord injury (SCI), we investigated whether SCI induced TSP4 dysregulation, and if so, whether this change correlated with changes in nociception in a T9 spinal cord contusion injury model. ⋯ SCI leads to TSP4 up-regulation in lumbar spinal cord that may play a critical role in mediating centrally mediated behavioural hypersensitivity. Blocking this pathway may be helpful in management of SCI-induced changes in nociception.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Acidic saline-induced pain as a model for experimental masseter myalgia in healthy subjects.
Repeated injection of acidic saline into skeletal muscles of the leg in rodents induces a prolonged bilateral mechanical hyperalgesia that persists for up to 30 days and may be useful to model widespread muscle pain conditions. In this study, repeated injection of acidic (pH 3.3) saline solution into the masseter muscle of healthy human subjects was undertaken to determine if these injections are painful and whether they would induce a prolonged period of muscle sensitization to artificial and/or natural mechanical stimulation of the masseter and temporalis muscles. ⋯ These findings indicate that, unlike in some rodent models, repeated injection of low pH solutions into jaw muscles of humans fails to induce a period of prolonged muscle hyperalgesia.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
A novel approach to identify responder subgroups and predictors of response to low- and high-dose capsaicin patches in postherpetic neuralgia.
Treatment of chronic pain conditions is commonly assessed at specific endpoints at preset times during or after treatment by analysis of the total study population. An alternative approach is the identification of specific patient subgroups characterized by differential response patterns in their analgesic response and to determine the presence of significant predictors of effect. ⋯ The analyses indicate the existence of different response groups to treatment with Qutenza and an active control patch that may possibly be related to different pain mechanisms among these groups, despite a presumed common underlying disease process, and that require different treatment approaches among subgroups.