Pain medicine : the official journal of the American Academy of Pain Medicine
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Given their ability to process highly dimensional datasets with hundreds of variables, machine learning algorithms may offer one solution to the vexing challenge of predicting postoperative pain. ⋯ Machine learning algorithms, when combined with complex and heterogeneous data from electronic medical record systems, can forecast acute postoperative pain outcomes with accuracies similar to methods that rely only on variables specifically collected for pain outcome prediction.
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Letter Case Reports
Large Buttocks Hematoma Caused by Deep Tissue Massage Therapy.
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Estimate the prevalence and healthcare costs of undiagnosed opioid abuse among commercially insured individuals. ⋯ Per-patient healthcare costs of undiagnosed abusers among the commercially insured are estimated to be lower than those of diagnosed abusers. However, the higher prevalence of undiagnosed opioid abuse implies that undiagnosed abuse represents a substantial burden to commercial payers.
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As smoking impacts physiological pathways in the central nervous system, it is important to consider the association between smoking and fibromyalgia, a pain condition caused predominantly by central nervous system dysfunction. The objectives were to assess the prevalence of current smoking among treatment-seeking chronic pain patients with (FM+) and without (FM-) a fibromyalgia-like phenotype; test the individual and combined influence of smoking and fibromyalgia on pain severity and interference; and examine depression as a mediator of these processes. ⋯ Current smoking and positive fibromyalgia status were associated with greater pain and impairment among chronic pain patients, possibly as a function of depression. Although FM+ smokers report the most negative clinical symptomatology (i.e., high pain, greater interference) smoking does not appear to have a unique association with pain or functioning in FM+ patients, rather the effect is additive. The 38.7% smoking rate in FM+ patients is high, suggesting FM+ smokers present a significant clinical challenge.