European journal of pain : EJP
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Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and glutamate (GLU) are involved in nociceptive signals processing in the trigeminal system. In this study, we investigated the influence of excitatory transmission on GABA release in nerve terminals isolated from the rat trigeminal caudal nucleus (TCN). ⋯ These findings indicate that pre-synaptic KA receptors facilitating GABA release from TCN nerve terminals mainly express GLUK2/GLUK3 subunits, supporting the notion that different types of KA receptors are involved in the various stages of pain transmission.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Effects of dexmedetomidine on conditioned pain modulation in humans.
Systemic administration of dexmedetomidine (DEX; selective α(2) -adrenoceptor agonist) is found to inhibit diffuse noxious inhibitory control in rats, now referred to as conditioned pain modulation (CPM) in humans. The present study was designed to investigate the effect of intravenous administration of DEX on CPM in humans. ⋯ The present study shows that systemic administration of an α(2) -adrenoceptor agonist (DEX), less than the clinical dose, inhibited CPM in humans. These results may provide some mechanistic insight into why many chronic pain patients show impaired CPM.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy attenuates neuropathic hyperalgesia in rats and idiopathic trigeminal neuralgia in patients.
Neuropathic pain after nerve injury is severe and intractable, and current drug and non-drug therapies offer very limited pain relief. Hyperbaric oxygen (HBO 2) has been clinically used for protection of the nervous system after acute injury. We investigated whether HBO 2 treatment could prevent and/or attenuate neuropathic pain in animals and in patients. ⋯ These findings support that HBO 2 therapy is an effective approach for treating neuropathic pain in both animals and human beings and suggest that neural protection, anti-inflammation and inhibition of nerve injury-induced altered neural activity may contribute to the analgesic effect of HBO 2 therapy.
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Post-stroke pain is common and affects the quality of life of stroke survivors, but the incidence and severity of headache, shoulder pain, other joint pain and central post-stroke pain following stroke still remain unclear. The aim of this prospective study was to determine the incidence and intensity of these different types of post-stroke pain. ⋯ Pain following stroke is common, with almost half of the patients reporting newly developed pain 6 months after stroke.