Pain medicine : the official journal of the American Academy of Pain Medicine
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The present cross-sectional study aims to unravel associations of pain intensity and cognitions with quantitative sensory testing in people scheduled for surgery for lumbar radiculopathy. Additionally, insight will be provided into the presence of dysfunctional nociceptive processing and maladaptive pain cognitions in this population. ⋯ Electrical detection thresholds and correlates for endogenous nociceptive facilitation and inhibition were not found to be related to any of the pain cognitions or to pain intensity in people scheduled to undergo surgery for lumbar radiculopathy.
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To determine, among patients with chronic pain who had received pain physician referral to pain psychology, the rate of establishing care and factors related to establishing care with pain psychology. ⋯ Patients are significantly more likely to establish care with pain psychology if they have previously seen a mental health professional. This was even more marked among the patient subset with a history of depression and/or anxiety who had engaged in mental health services than among those with a history of depression and/or anxiety who had not engaged in mental health services. Whether referral was for general psychological evaluation or preprocedural evaluation for an implantable device did not significantly influence whether patients established care. Targeted interventions are needed to improve the likelihood of patients engaging with pain psychology services.