Pain medicine : the official journal of the American Academy of Pain Medicine
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Numerous randomized controlled trials have evaluated the outcomes of internet-delivered psychological pain management programs (PMPs) as a way of increasing access to care for people with chronic pain. However, there are few reports of the effectiveness of these PMPs when provided as part of routine care. ⋯ These findings highlight the effectiveness and acceptability of internet-delivered psychological PMPs in routine care and point to the need to consider how best to integrate these interventions into the pathways of care for people with chronic pain.
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To assess whether chronic pain increases the risk of COVID-19 complications and whether opioid use disorder (OUD) differentiates this risk among New York State Medicaid beneficiaries. ⋯ Chronic pain increased the risk of COVID-19 ED visits and hospitalizations. Presence of OUD further increased the risk of COVID-19 hospitalizations and the odds of hepatic- and cardiac-related events. Results highlight intersecting risks among a vulnerable population and can inform tailored COVID-19 management.
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In response to the opioid crisis, U.S. states have passed laws requiring urine drug testing (UDT) when opioid analgesics are prescribed for chronic pain. We sought to identify state law UDT requirements. ⋯ Relatively few states have UDT mandates associated with prescribing opioids as chronic pain treatment. When developing policy indicators for empirical studies, researchers evaluating how UDT policy affects health outcomes must consider the complexity and lack of uniformity of UDT requirements. In addition, even if states mandate UDT, it is unclear whether clinicians understand the best way to use the test results.
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Frailty is a multisystem syndrome and its relationship with symptomatic osteoarthritis has been reported. We aimed to identify trajectories of knee pain in a large prospective cohort and to describe the effect of frailty status at baseline on the pain trajectories over 9 years. ⋯ Approximately two-thirds of middle-aged and older adults were frail or pre-frail. The role of frailty in predicting pain trajectories suggests that frailty may be an important treatment target for knee pain.