Pain medicine : the official journal of the American Academy of Pain Medicine
-
Recent guidelines advise limiting opioid prescriptions for acute pain to a three-day supply; however, scant literature quantifies opioid use patterns after an emergency department (ED) visit. We sought to describe opioid consumption patterns after an ED visit for acute pain. ⋯ In this sample, pill consumption varied by illness category; however, overall, patients were consuming low quantities of pills, and the majority had unused pills 10 days after their ED visit.
-
Observational Study
Clinical Characteristics and Therapeutic Results in a Series of 68 Patients with Occipital Neuralgia.
Cranial pain is a condition that has a negative impact on human lives, and occipital neuralgia is among its causes. This study aims to evaluate the clinical characteristics and therapeutic results of a series of patients with occipital neuralgia. ⋯ Occipital neuralgia is an uncommon disorder in the sample explored. The prolonged latency between the onset of symptoms and diagnosis suggests that there should be an increased awareness of this disorder.
-
Thoracic spinal pain is common, and patients with this type of pain have limited therapeutic options. The cohort in this study received diagnostic intra-articular zygapophysial joint injections leading to thermal neurotomy to the medial branch nerves to demonstrate improved pain as well as physical and psychological function. ⋯ This cohort demonstrates that there is a pragmatic diagnostic and therapeutic option available for patients with thoracic zygapophysial joint pain that can achieve 50-100% of pain relief in 63% of patients with improved physical and psychological function.
-
The contribution of psychological risk factors to the intensification of pain experienced among individuals with fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) is relatively under-studied. The present study aims to explore associations between FMS-related somatic symptom severity and two personality tendencies: anxiety sensitivity (AS) and socially prescribed perfectionism (SPP). Furthermore, the relative contributions of these personality tendencies are examined vis-à-vis the experience of potentially traumatic events (PTEs) and the psychopathology of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS). ⋯ The present study supports the assumption that psychological risk factors may affect the expression of somatic symptoms and the interpretation of pain stimulus arising in the body that might eventually be experienced as excessively painful. The study also suggests that above and beyond psychological risk factors, PTSS may express a high predominance and affect pain perception among participants with FMS.