Journal of pain research
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Journal of pain research · Jan 2014
An open-label, long-term study examining the safety and tolerability of pregabalin in Japanese patients with central neuropathic pain.
Studies of pregabalin for the treatment of central neuropathic pain have been limited to double-blind trials of 4-17 weeks in duration. The purpose of this study was to assess the long-term safety and tolerability of pregabalin in Japanese patients with central neuropathic pain. The efficacy of pregabalin was also assessed as a secondary measure. ⋯ These findings demonstrate that pregabalin is generally well tolerated and provides sustained efficacy over a 53-week treatment period in patients with chronic central neuropathic pain.
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Journal of pain research · Jan 2014
Scientometric assessment of drugs for chronic pain, 1979-2013: rapid growth of publications, paucity of successful drugs.
The aim of this study was to find signs of progress in the pharmacotherapy of chronic pain over the past 35 years using scientometric analysis. The following scientometric indices were used: 1) popularity index, representing the share of articles on a specific drug(s) relative to all articles in the field of chronic pain; 2) index of change, representing the degree of growth in publications on a topic from one period to the next; 3) index of expectations, representing the ratio of the number of articles on a topic in the top 20 journals relative to the number of articles in all (>5,000) biomedical journals covered by PubMed; and 4) index of ultimate success, representing a publication outcome when a new drug takes the place of a common drug previously used for the same purpose. Publications on 55 drugs used in the treatment of chronic pain were assessed during seven 5-year periods, from 1979 to 2013. ⋯ None of the drugs had a high index of expectations in 2009-2013. The index of ultimate success was positive only with triptans in the relatively limited area of acute treatment of migraine. As a result, despite rapid growth in the number of publications, our scientometric analysis did not reveal signs of substantial progress in the field of pharmacotherapy for chronic pain.
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Journal of pain research · Jan 2014
Fasinumab (REGN475), an antinerve growth factor monoclonal antibody, for the treatment of acute sciatic pain: results of a proof-of-concept study.
To evaluate the efficacy and safety of subcutaneously administered fasinumab (REGN475), a nerve growth factor-neutralizing antibody, in patients with acute sciatic pain receiving standard of care therapy. ⋯ Administration of fasinumab provided no significant clinical benefit compared with placebo for the pain or functional limitations associated with acute sciatica. Fasinumab was generally well tolerated and incidence of TEAEs appeared to be dose related.
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Journal of pain research · Jan 2014
Conditioned pain modulation is minimally influenced by cognitive evaluation or imagery of the conditioning stimulus.
Conditioned pain modulation (CPM) is an experimental approach for probing endogenous analgesia by which one painful stimulus (the conditioning stimulus) may inhibit the perceived pain of a subsequent stimulus (the test stimulus). Animal studies suggest that CPM is mediated by a spino-bulbo-spinal loop using objective measures such as neuronal firing. In humans, pain ratings are often used as the end point. Because pain self-reports are subject to cognitive influences, we tested whether cognitive factors would impact on CPM results in healthy humans. ⋯ Our results suggest that CPM is primarily dependent on sensory input, and that the cortical processes of evaluation and imagery have little impact on CPM. These findings lend support for CPM as a useful tool for probing endogenous analgesia through subcortical mechanisms.
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Journal of pain research · Jan 2014
Reduction of painful area as new possible therapeutic target in post-herpetic neuropathic pain treated with 5% lidocaine medicated plaster: a case series.
Post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN) is neuropathic pain persisting after an acute episode of herpes zoster, and is associated with severe pain and sensory abnormalities that adversely affect the patient's quality of life and increase health care costs. Up to 83% of patients with PHN describe localized neuropathic pain, defined as "a type of neuropathic pain characterized by consistent and circumscribed area(s) of maximum pain". Topical treatments have been suggested as a first-line treatment for localized neuropathic pain. ⋯ Such patients benefit greatly from topical treatment of PHN. Our observations confirm the effectiveness of lidocaine plasters in the treatment of PHN, indicating that 5% lidocaine medicated plaster could reduce the size of the painful area. This last observation has to be confirmed and the mechanisms clarified in appropriate larger randomized controlled trials.