Pain medicine : the official journal of the American Academy of Pain Medicine
-
To validate a self-report fibromyalgia screener in a chronic pain population. ⋯ A self-administered, brief fibromyalgia screening questionnaire can effectively identify chronic pain patients who will likely have clinical fibromyalgia.
-
Stress has a strong influence on pain sensitivity. However, the direction of this influence is unclear. Recent studies reported both decreased and increased pain sensitivities under stress, and one hypothesis is that interindividual differences account for these differences. The aim of our study was to investigate the effect of stress on individual pain sensitivity in a relatively large female sample. ⋯ These findings support the view that pain sensitivity under stress shows large interindividual variability, and point to a possible dichotomy of altered pain sensitivity under stress.
-
Injection of opioids to the superior cervical ganglion (SCG) has been reported to provide pain relief in patients suffering from different kinds of neuropathic facial pain conditions, such as trigeminal neuralgia, postherpetic neuralgia, and atypical facial pain. The classic approach to the SCG is a transoral technique using a so-called "stopper" to prevent accidental carotid artery puncture. The main disadvantage of this technique is that the needle tip is positioned distant from the actual target, possibly impeding successful block of the SCG. A further limitation is that injection of local anesthetics due to potential carotid artery puncture is contraindicated. We hypothesized that the SCG can be identified and blocked using ultrasound imaging, potentially increasing precision of this technique. ⋯ The anatomical dissections confirmed that our ultrasound-guided approach to the SCG is accurate. Ultrasound could become an attractive alternative to the "blind" transoral technique of SCG blocks.
-
To examine the effects of noninvasive pulsed radio frequency energy (PRFE) on recurrent migraine headache associated with occipital neuralgia. ⋯ Improvement in frequency of headaches was noted, especially when PRFE was combined with GLONB. Further study is warranted.