European journal of pain : EJP
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There are few studies on chronic pain prevalence in people living with HIV, and there are no studies comparing chronic pain prevalence in an HIV-infected group (HIV+) to that found in an uninfected group (HIV-) in the same population. This study was undertaken to (1) estimate the chronic pain prevalence in HIV+ individuals and (2) compare chronic pain prevalence between HIV+ and HIV- groups in a population. ⋯ Using data from a large, national, population-based study in South Africa, I show for the first time that the prevalence of chronic pain in that population did not differ materially between the part of the population that was living with HIV compared with their uninfected counterparts (both approximately 20%). These findings run counter to the dogma that there is a greater risk of having pain in people living with HIV.
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Low back pain (LBP) is more likely to occur in people with a family history of this condition, highlighting the importance of accounting for familial factors when studying the individual risk of LBP. We conducted a study of opposite-sex twin pairs investigating sex differences in LBP while accounting for (genetic and shared environmental) familial factors. ⋯ Our study of adult opposite-sex twin pairs found no evidence of an association between female sex and lifetime prevalence of low back pain after controlling for familial factors in the merged sample from Australia, Spain and USA, contrary to findings from previous studies of unrelated individuals. Our findings indicate potentially relevant between-country genetic, cultural and environmental differences which may need to be considered for optimal and individualized strategies for the prevention and management of low back pain across the lifespan.
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Paediatric chronic pain was a public health emergency before the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and this problem is predicted to escalate. Pain tends to occur intergenerationally in families, and youth with chronic pain and their parents have high rates of mental health issues, which can further exacerbate pain. Siblings of youth with chronic pain have been largely overlooked in research, as well as the impact of the pandemic on posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and healthcare utilization. ⋯ This study examined pain, mental health, substance use and healthcare utilization in youth with chronic pain, siblings and parents during the COVID-19 pandemic. Greater personal impact of the pandemic was not largely associated with poorer pain outcomes; however, it was associated with mental health, with the largest effect on PTSD symptoms. The high rates and significant association of COVID-19 impact with PTSD symptoms underscore the importance of including PTSD assessment as part of routine screening practices in pain clinics.
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Intramuscular injections of hypertonic saline are commonly used to induce experimental muscle pain, but reliability data on this technique are lacking. This study investigated the intra- and interindividual reliability of pain measures from a hypertonic saline injection into the vastus lateralis. ⋯ Many pain research studies have performed intramuscular injections of hypertonic saline to investigate responses to muscle pain. However, the reliability of this technique is not well established. We examined the pain response over three repeated sessions of a hypertonic saline injection. The pain induced by hypertonic saline has considerable interindividual variability but has largely acceptable intraindividual reliability. Therefore, the injections of hypertonic saline to induce muscle pain are a reliable model of experimental muscle pain.
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A critical aspect for most human pain research is the ability of participants to communicate their first-person, experiential perspective to a third-person observer. This communication is frequently accomplished via pain ratings. The scale type can influence the communication of pain experiences and can contribute to gender differences in pain. This study examined the role of gender on pain ratings using noxious and innocuous stimuli across two types of rating scales. ⋯ There are differences in the usage of rating scales in which ratings for auditory, visual and noxious somatosensory stimuli are higher with NRS compared to VAS. Choosing a rating scale for research or clinical use should take this different item functioning into account.