Journal of pain research
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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.
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Journal of pain research · Jan 2016
Transsacrococcygeal approach to ganglion impar: radiofrequency application for the treatment of chronic intractable coccydynia.
Coccydynia is defined as pain in the coccygeal region. Among the many causes of coccydynia, the most common cause is trauma as a result of falling on the buttocks, repetitive microtrauma, or childbirth. Several methods are currently used for the treatment of coccydynia, including nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, intrarectal manipulation, epidural injections, ganglion impar blocks, and radiofrequency treatment (RFT). Wemm and Saberski used the transacrococcygeal methods to reduce tissue trauma. RFT is a percutaneous minimally invasive procedure. In this study, we aimed to assess the effect of the transsacrococcygeal approach on ganglion impar RFT in patients with chronic coccydynia. ⋯ Based on the lower pain scores and low complication rates after the operations, the results suggest that application of RFT on ganglion impar by the transsacrococcygeal approach is an effective and safe method for the treatment of chronic coccydynia. Patient selection, technique, and experience are the most important factors affecting the success of this method.
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Journal of pain research · Jan 2016
Improvement in pain severity category in clinical trials of pregabalin.
Pregabalin is approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of fibromyalgia (FM), diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN), postherpetic neuralgia (PHN), and neuropathic pain due to spinal cord injury (SCI). Approval was based on clinical trial data demonstrating statistically significant differences in pain scores versus placebo. However, statistically significant pain relief may not always equate to clinically meaningful pain relief. To further characterize the clinical benefit of pregabalin, this analysis examined shifts in pain severity categories in patients with FM, DPN/PHN (pooled in this analysis), and SCI treated with pregabalin. ⋯ Compared with placebo, pregabalin is more often associated with clinically meaningful improvements in pain category in patients with FM, DPN, PHN, or SCI.
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Journal of pain research · Jan 2016
A novel paradigm to evaluate conditioned pain modulation in fibromyalgia.
Application of noxious stimulation to one body area reduces pain sensitivity in a remote body area through activation of an endogenous pain-inhibitory network, a behavioral phenomenon referred to as conditioned pain modulation (CPM). The efficiency of CPM is predictive of a variety of health outcomes, while impaired CPM has been associated with various chronic pain conditions. Current methods used to assess CPM vary widely, and interest in CPM method development remains strong. Here, we evaluated a novel method for assessing CPM in healthy controls and fibromyalgia (FM) patients using thumb pressure as both a test and conditioning stimulus. ⋯ The current study demonstrates that thumbnail pressure can be used as both a test and conditioning stimulus in the assessment of CPM. This study further confirms previous findings of attenuated CPM in FM patients compared with healthy controls.