Pain medicine : the official journal of the American Academy of Pain Medicine
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Pain affects millions of American adults. However, individuals from socioeconomically disadvantaged groups experience higher rates of pain, and individuals from racial/ethnic minorities report greater pain severity and pain-related disability. Some studies find an association between neighborhood socioeconomic status and pain. The present study aimed to further understand the association between neighborhood disadvantage and pain, including the role of objective (e.g., crime rates) and subjective neighborhood characteristics (e.g., perceived safety, neighborhood satisfaction), and to examine sleep and psychological distress as potential mediators of these associations. ⋯ Understanding the contribution of sleep problems and psychological distress to pain among at-risk individuals living in disadvantaged neighborhoods is important to identifying ways that individual- and neighborhood-level interventions may be leveraged to reduce pain-related disparities.
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To evaluate the impact of Iowa's prescription monitoring program (PMP), implemented in 2009, on opioid pain reliever (OPR) prescribing patterns. ⋯ Our study suggests that Iowa PMP implementation may have resulted in declines in OPR prescribing, and this impact varies by patient age and sex.
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To systematically review evidence addressing the efficacy of testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) and opioid tapering for opioid-induced hypogonadism among patients with chronic noncancer pain. ⋯ Low-quality to very low-quality evidence suggests that TRT may improve pain and emotional functioning, but not other outcomes, in chronic noncancer pain patients with opioid-induced hypogonadism.