Pain medicine : the official journal of the American Academy of Pain Medicine
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This research looked at whether notifying prescribers and pharmacies about patients who use multiple providers to obtain opioids reduces their prescribing activity (including use of multiple providers, numbers of opioid prescriptions, or amounts of opioids obtained). ⋯ Requiring prescribers to solicit patients' prescription histories is likely to be a more effective use of PDMP resources than proactive notification.
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Observational Study
Pain Expansion and Severity Reflect Central Sensitization in Primary Care Patients with Greater Trochanteric Pain Syndrome.
The aims of this study were twofold: 1) to evaluate the differences in pain sensitivity of patients with greater trochanteric pain syndrome (GTPS) and 2) to examine the association between pain expansion, pain severity, and pain-related central sensitization somatosensory variables in patients with GTPS. ⋯ Patients with GTPS presented altered CPM, a relationship with more pain areas associated with negative CPM, and a positive association between pain severity and mechanical hyperalgesia at remote sites. Thus, physicians could apply these outcome measurements to assess primary care patients with GTPS and determine the central sensitization presence to prescribe adequate multimodal treatment approaches.
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Neurorehabilitation techniques using virtual reality (VR) systems have recently become widespread as a rehabilitation method for restoring phantom limb movement and alleviating phantom limb pain (PLP). However, analgesic effects have varied between studies, possibly because of differences in the characteristics of PLP between patients (e.g., cramping, burning, shooting). We aimed to reveal the relationship between VR effects and PLP characteristics using an exploratory factor analysis. ⋯ The current findings indicate that VR rehabilitation may be particularly effective for PLP associated with distorted phantom limb movement and body representations (e.g., clamping, gnawing), compared with typical neuropathic sensations (e.g., shooting, burning, dysesthesia).