Journal of pain research
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Journal of pain research · Jan 2016
Nocebo hyperalgesia: contributions of social observation and body-related cognitive styles.
Recently, it has been shown that nocebo hyperalgesia can be acquired through observational learning. The aim of this study was to investigate socially induced nocebo hyperalgesia and its relationship with pain catastrophizing, somatic complaints, hypochondriacal concerns, and empathy. ⋯ Application of an ointment as well as the observation of a model demonstrating more pain after a treatment produced elevated pain ratings. Cognitive styles were not related to the socially induced nocebo response, but were related to the nocebo response in the CC.
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Journal of pain research · Jan 2016
An investigation of completion times on the Screener and Opioid Assessment for Patients with Pain - revised (SOAPP-R).
Respondents' scores to the Screener and Opioid Assessment for Patients with Pain - revised (SOAPP-R) have been shown to be predictive of aberrant drug-related behavior (ADB). However, research is lacking on whether an individual's completion time (the amount of time that he/she takes to finish the screener) has utility in predicting ADB, despite the fact that response speed has been useful in predicting behavior in other fields. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the degree to which SOAPP-R completion time is predictive of ADB. ⋯ There was no significant evidence that SOAPP-R completion times were predictive of ADB among emergency department patients. However, the AUC value for completion times was only slightly less than that for SOAPP-R total scores.
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Journal of pain research · Jan 2016
Is blood glucose associated with descending modulation of spinal nociception as measured by the nociceptive flexion reflex?
Prior research has shown a relationship between blood glucose levels and some forms of self-regulation (eg, executive function), with low blood glucose levels associated with impaired self-regulation. Further, engagement in self-regulation tasks depletes blood glucose. Given these relationships, the present study examined whether blood glucose is associated with another form of self-regulation, ie, descending pain modulatory processes. ⋯ This study suggests that glucose depletion may impair performance of descending inhibitory processes, without impacting the perceptual detection of pain (pain threshold). Although findings need to be replicated, maintaining adequate glucose levels may be necessary to support inhibition of spinal nociception.
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Journal of pain research · Jan 2016
Keeping an eye on pain: investigating visual attention biases in individuals with chronic pain using eye-tracking methodology.
Attentional biases to painful stimuli are evident in individuals with chronic pain, although the directional tendency of these biases (ie, toward or away from threat-related stimuli) remains unclear. This study used eye-tracking technology, a measure of visual attention, to evaluate the attentional patterns of individuals with and without chronic pain during exposure to injury-related and neutral pictures. Individuals with (N=51) and without chronic pain (N=62) completed a dot-probe task using injury-related and neutral pictures while their eye movements were recorded. ⋯ Between-group differences showed that individuals with chronic pain had fewer fixations and shorter average visit durations for all stimuli. An examination of how biases change over the time-course of stimulus presentation showed that during the late phase of attention, individuals with chronic pain had longer average gaze durations on injury pictures relative to pain-free individuals. The results show the advantage of incorporating eye-tracking methodology when examining attentional biases, and suggest future avenues of research.
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Journal of pain research · Jan 2016
Does a research group increase impact on the scientific community or general public discussion? Alternative metric-based evaluation.
In this study, we investigated the impact of scientific publications of the Italian SIMPAR (Study In Multidisciplinary PAin Research) group by using altmetrics, defined as nontraditional metrics constituting an alternative to more traditional citation-impact metrics, such as impact factor and H-index. By correlating traditional and alternative metrics, we attempted to verify whether publications by the SIMPAR group collectively had more impact than those performed by its individual members, either in solo publications or in publications coauthored by non-SIMPAR group investigators (which for the purpose of this study we will refer to as "individual publications"). For all the 12 members of the group analyzed (pain therapists, biologists, and pharmacologists), we created Open Researcher and Contributor ID and Impact Story accounts, and synchronized these data. ⋯ Altmetrics demonstrated that SIMPAR group publications were more likely to be saved (77.8% vs 45.9%), discussed (61.1% vs 1.1%, P<0.0001), and publicly viewed (11.1% vs 1.3%, P=0.05) than individual publications. These results support the importance of multidisciplinary research groups in the impact of scientific literature; the interaction and synergy among the research participants allowed the obtainment of high impact-literature in the field of personalized pain medicine. Finally, our findings demonstrate the potential of altmetrics in estimating the value of the research products of a group.