Pain medicine : the official journal of the American Academy of Pain Medicine
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Comparative Study
The pain provocation technique for adolescents with chronic pain: preliminary evidence for its effectiveness.
This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of the "pain provocation technique" (PPT)--a focused treatment strategy incorporating interoceptive exposure (i.e., imagining increases in pain intensity), bilateral stimulation (tactile stimulation), and implementation of pain-related coping to decrease pain intensity--for adolescents suffering from chronic pain. ⋯ Results are discussed in terms of the importance of focused treatment strategies such as interoceptive exposure for adolescents suffering from disabling chronic pain. Future studies are warranted to carefully investigate the effectiveness and possible process of change during the PPT such as sensory, cognitive, emotional, and memory aspects.
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With the growth in opioid therapy for the treatment of chronic pain, health care providers have focused their attention on avoiding over-use of opioid medications, specifically to avoid addiction, dependency, and other misuse. Qualitative and quantitative reviews of medication adherence, in contrast, focus primarily on why patients under-use or do not take their medications as prescribed and find nonadherence rates of approximately 25%. ⋯ Improved communication between patients and providers and shared decision-making regarding opioid prescriptions may improve pain management and minimize the problems associated with over-prescription of opioids (i.e., diversion).
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Intrathecal sufentanil is a minimally utilized opioid for patients with intractable pain refractory to traditional intrathecal medications. We present an 86-year-old female with a history of multiple spine surgeries who eventually progressed to having chronic, intractable, and diffuse low back pain. After failing medical management, she underwent a successful intrathecal trial of opioid therapy and was subsequently treated with an implantable drug delivery system (IDDS) or intrathecal pump. ⋯ Due to increasing opioid requirements and gradually escalating pain, a computed tomography myelogram was performed to explore neuraxial etiologies of her symptoms. This investigation revealed the presence of a catheter tip-associated inflammatory mass (granuloma). All patients receiving intrathecal medications, including sufentanil, must be considered for the possibility of catheter-associated granuloma, particularly with symptoms of altered neurological function and/or increasing medication requirements associated with worsening pain.
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Lower-limb edema is recognized as an untoward side effect of intrathecal opioid therapy. Cellulitis, an acute, spreading pyogenic inflammation of the dermis and subcutaneous tissue, predisposed by persistent leg edema, can become problematic in patients on intraspinal opioid infusion therapy. ⋯ Intrathecal Baclofen and Clonidine may be used as alternatives to provide spinally mediated antinociception when intraspinal opioid fails due to pharmacological side effects such as persistent edema.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
A fMRI evaluation of lamotrigine for the treatment of trigeminal neuropathic pain: pilot study.
Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) methods, we evaluated the effects of lamotrigine vs placebo in a double-blind 1:1 randomized trial. Six patients with neuropathic pain were recruited for the study. All subjects had baseline pain >4/10 on a visual analog scale (VAS) and allodynia to brush as inclusion criteria for the study. ⋯ Lamotrigine decreased their average pain intensity level from 5.6 to 3.5 on a VAS. All subjects had brush, cold, and heat applied to the affected and mirror-unaffected sides of their face. The results show: 1) in a small cohort, lamotrigine had a significant effect on heat VAS but not on the other stimuli; and 2) contrast analysis of fMRI results for heat stimuli applied to the affected face for lamotrigine vs placebo produced an overall decrease in blood oxygen dependent level signal, suggesting a potential inhibitory effect of the drug on predominantly cortical regions (frontal, parietal, and temporal).