Pain medicine : the official journal of the American Academy of Pain Medicine
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Meta Analysis
Health Care Provider Utilization of Prescription Monitoring Programs: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
To synthesize the literature on the proportion of health care providers who access and use prescription monitoring program data in their practice, as well as associated barriers to the use of such data. ⋯ Our study found that health care providers underutilize prescription monitoring program data and that many barriers exist to prescription monitoring program data use.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
A Brief Psychological Intervention for Chronic Pain in Primary Care: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.
Although evidence-based psychological interventions improve chronic pain, many patients do not engage in behavioral health services. Offering a brief intervention in a medical setting may provide benefits to patients with chronic pain. The purpose of this study was to examine preliminary outcomes of a brief psychological intervention for chronic pain delivered in primary care. ⋯ Results suggest that delivery of a brief psychological intervention for chronic pain in primary care appears to offer improvements in pain severity, pain interference, pain catastrophizing, and depression. Findings suggest that shorter-term psychological interventions may offer similar benefits as longer-term ones. Furthermore, offering a brief intervention in primary care may increase access and engagement in behavioral pain management services. Future research should examine this through a fully-powered trial with longer-term outcomes.
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Genicular nerve radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is increasingly being performed to treat chronic pain due to knee osteoarthritis (KOA). This narrative review provides a concise summary of the relevant neuroanatomy, randomized controlled trials, appropriate patient selection, and safety relating to genicular RFA. Cadaveric studies demonstrate significant variability in the location of the genicular nerves, which has stimulated debate about the ideal target locations for genicular RFA. ⋯ Several randomized controlled trials demonstrate superiority of genicular RFA compared with intra-articular steroid, viscosupplementation, and oral analgesics. Genicular RFA of the superior medial genicular nerve, inferior medial genicular nerve, and superior lateral genicular nerve appears to be an effective treatment for painful KOA, but targeting additional sensory nerves may further improve treatment success. Although genicular RFA appears relatively safe on the basis of the available data, additional large-scale studies are needed to provide greater confidence.