Pain medicine : the official journal of the American Academy of Pain Medicine
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The Army Surgeon General released the Pain Management Task Force final report in May 2010. Among military providers, concerns were raised that the standard numeric rating scale (NRS) for pain was inconsistently administered and of questionable clinical value. In response, the Defense and Veterans Pain Rating Scale (DVPRS) was developed. ⋯ The DVPRS tool demonstrated acceptable psychometric properties in a military population.
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Potential peripheral sources of pain from subcutaneous tissue can require invasive evocative tests for their localization and assessment. Here, we describe studies whose ultimate goal is development of a noninvasive evocative test for subcutaneous, painful tissue. ⋯ Successful stimulation of the neuroma by intense focused ultrasound required colocalization of the neuroma and intense focused ultrasound supporting our hypothesis.
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Controlled Clinical Trial
Impact of animal-assisted therapy for outpatients with fibromyalgia.
Animal-assisted therapy using dogs trained to be calm and provide comfort to strangers has been used as a complementary therapy for a range of medical conditions. This study was designed to evaluate the effects of brief therapy dog visits for fibromyalgia patients attending a tertiary outpatient pain management facility compared with time spent in a waiting room. ⋯ Brief therapy dog visits may provide a valuable complementary therapy for fibromyalgia outpatients.
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Our objective was to evaluate the quality of opioid analgesia prescribing in chronic nonmalignant pain (CNMP) by general practitioners (GPs, family physicians). ⋯ In this study, long-term opioids were frequently initiated for CNMP without a quality use-of-medicine approach. Potential sequelae are inadequate treatment of pain and escalating opioid-related harms. These data suggest a need for improved resourcing and training in opioid management across pain and addictions.