Pain medicine : the official journal of the American Academy of Pain Medicine
-
Multicenter Study Comparative Study
Connecting the Dots: A Comparative Global Multi-Institutional Study of Prohibitive Factors Affecting Cancer Pain Management.
The goal of this study was to elucidate the attitudes, beliefs, and barriers interfering with cancer pain management, the degree of barrier interference with trainees’ care of patients, and the relationships among prohibitive factors to pain management for physicians in a low–middle-income countries (LMICs) vs high-income countries (HICs). ⋯ There are significant differences in perceived barriers and degree of prohibitive factors to cancer pain management among trainee physicians in low- vs high-resource environments. Understanding these differences may spur further collaboration in the design of contextually relevant solutions, which could potentially help improve the adequacy of cancer pain management
-
Observational Study
The Effect of Initiatives to Overcome Language Barriers and Improve Attendance: A Cross-Sectional Analysis of Adherence in an Inner City Chronic Pain Clinic.
Language barriers can prevent pain physicians and patients from forming meaningful rapport and drive health care disparities. Non-adherence with scheduled pain clinic appointments deprives patients with chronic pain of needed specialist care. ⋯ The results of this retrospective cross-sectional analysis of patients’ adherence with scheduled appointments in an inner-city chronic pain clinic suggests that targeted initiatives including a pre-clinic reminder phone call in the patient’s own language may help to overcome language barriers and improve access to care.
-
Pain and depressive disorders often present together, but little is known about the prevalence of pain in depression subgroups. The objective of this study was to examine the possible differences in the prevalence of musculoskeletal pain between participants in melancholic and atypical depression subgroups. ⋯ Melancholic depression showed to be associated with a higher prevalence of musculoskeletal pain in comparison with atypical depression. This finding highlights the need for further studies about the mechanisms behind the association, particularly in melancholic depression.
-
Sacroiliac joint (SIJ) pain originating from the posterior ligament manifests in not only the buttocks but also the groin and lower extremities and thus may be difficult to discern from pain secondary to other lumbar disorders. We aimed to develop a simple clinical diagnostic tool to help physicians distinguish between patients with SIJ pain originating from the posterior ligament and those with lumbar disc herniation (LDH) or lumbar spinal canal stenosis (LSS). ⋯ The scoring system can help distinguish between patients with SIJ pain originating from the posterior ligament and those with LDH and LSS.