Pain medicine : the official journal of the American Academy of Pain Medicine
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Observational Study
Reducing the Pain Behind Opioid Prescribing in Primary Care.
To describe the efficacy of a comprehensive approach aimed at reducing opioid prescribing in an internal medicine resident clinic. ⋯ Our findings demonstrate a significant reduction in opioid prescribing after implementation of a comprehensive initiative. Although our study was observational in nature, we witnessed a nearly threefold decrease in opioid prescribing compared with national trends. Our results offer important insights for other primary care resident clinics hoping to engender safe prescribing practices and curb high-dose opioid prescribing.
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This retrospective cohort study tested the hypothesis that implementing a multidisciplinary patient-specific discharge protocol for prescribing and tapering opioids after total hip arthroplasty (THA) will decrease the morphine milligram equivalent (MME) dose of opioids prescribed. ⋯ Implementation of a patient-specific prescribing and tapering protocol decreases the mean six-week dosage of opioid prescribed by 63% after THA without increasing the refill rate.
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To compare pain and psychological outcomes in veterans with chronic musculoskeletal pain and comorbid post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or pain alone and to determine if veterans with comorbidity respond differently to a stepped-care intervention than those with pain alone. ⋯ Veterans with the pain-PTSD comorbidity demonstrated worse pain and psychological outcomes than those with chronic pain alone. These findings indicate a more intense chronic pain experience for veterans when PTSD co-occurs with pain. PTSD did not lead to a differential response to a stepped-care intervention.
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Previous studies reported the presence of widespread pressure pain sensitivity in patients with tension-type headache. However, most of the studies assessed pressure pain sensitivity over muscle tissue. Our aim was to investigate the difference in pressure pain sensitivity over musculoskeletal and nerve symptomatic and distant areas between women with frequent episodic tension-type headache (FETTH) and healthy subjects. ⋯ This study found widespread pressure pain hypersensitivity over both nerve trunks and musculoskeletal structures in women with FETTH, suggesting that the presence of central altered nociceptive processing is not just restricted to musculoskeletal areas, for example, muscles, but also pain evoked from directly provoking the nerve trunks by pressure. It is also possible that nerve tissue treatment could lead to a decrease in central sensitization and headache features.