Pain medicine : the official journal of the American Academy of Pain Medicine
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The goal of this study was to assess the success of the morphine microdose method in a community pain clinic setting by monitoring follow-up frequency, dose escalation, and monotherapy/polytherapy ratio. The morphine microdose method involves a pretrial reduction or elimination of systemic opioids followed by a period of abstinence. Intrathecal (IT) morphine is then started at doses of less than 0.2 mg per day. Systemic opioid abstinence is then continued after pump implant and IT morphine monotherapy. ⋯ Microdose therapy achieved analgesia, improved safety, and avoided systemic side effects. The safety of IT therapy was increased by using a lower concentration (2 mg/mL) and lower daily doses (<3 mg/d) of morphine. Furthermore, microdose therapy was feasible, safe, and cost-effective in the outpatient setting.
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To examine patient sociodemographic and clinical characteristics associated with opioid use among Veterans of Operations Enduring Freedom/Iraqi Freedom/New Dawn (OEF/OIF/OND) who receive chiropractic care, and to explore the relationship between timing of a chiropractic visit and receipt of an opioid prescription. ⋯ Nearly one-third of OEF/OIF/OND veterans receiving VA chiropractic services also received an opioid prescription, yet the frequency of opioid prescriptions was lower after the index chiropractic visit than before. Further study is warranted to assess the relationship between opioid use and chiropractic care.
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We assess the safety of performing the epidural placement or revision of spinal cord stimulation (SCS) in patients whose anticoagulation has been held (termed "anticoagulant-suspended" patients) in accordance with the 2017 Neurostimulation Appropriateness Consensus Committee (NACC) guidelines. ⋯ This study is the first to demonstrate that anticoagulant-suspended patients have no increased risk of perioperative hemorrhagic or thromboembolic adverse effects following SCS surgery compared with nonanticoagulated patients. The findings of this study validate the safety of neuromodulation in anticoagulation-suspended patients, concurring with the findings of previously described case studies, which anecdotally described neuromodulation outcomes in patients whose anticoagulation regimen had been temporarily held.
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A long-standing hypothesis is that when compared with males, females may be at increased risk of experiencing greater pain sensitivity and unpleasantness. The purpose of this study was to examine sex differences in pain psychophysics and resting state functional connectivity (RSFC) in core pain regions in an age- and sex-matched sample of healthy older adults. ⋯ We found no differences in pain sensitivity or pain affect between older males and older females. Additionally, we found that older females exhibited a greater association between thermal pain sensitivity and RSFC signal between regions typically associated with pain affect and the descending modulatory system. One interpretation of these findings is that older females may better engage the descending pain modulatory system. This better engagement possibly translates into older females having similar perceptual thresholds for temperature sensitivity and unpleasantness associated with mild and moderate pain. These findings contrast with studies demonstrating that younger females find thermal pain more sensitive and more unpleasant.