Pain medicine : the official journal of the American Academy of Pain Medicine
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Capsaicin 8% Patch for Spinal Cord Injury Focal Neuropathic Pain, a Randomized Controlled Trial.
Neuropathic pain (NP) after spinal cord injury (SCI) exacerbates disability, decreases quality of life (QOL), and is often refractory to available therapies. Patients report willingness to trade potential recovery of strength, bowel, bladder, or sexual function for pain relief. One proposed mechanism causing NP is up-regulation of transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV 1) proteins in uninjured C fibers and dorsal root ganglia causing neuronal excitability. Recent studies have found up-regulation of TRPV 1 proteins after SCI. ⋯ C8P improves pain and mobility for patients with SCI and refractory NP. Larger studies should be performed to evaluate impact of repeat applications and QOL outcomes.
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The present study aimed (1) to analyze the relative paraspinal autochthonous intramuscular fat volume before and after radiofrequency neurotomy (RFN) and (2) to compare it to the contralateral non-treated side. ⋯ Our study shows that there are no differences in the paraspinal muscle/fat distribution after RFN. RFN of the medial branches for FCS does not seem to cause fatty degeneration of the lumbar paraspinal muscles as a sign of iatrogenic muscle denervation.
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Meta Analysis
Health coaching for low back pain, hip and knee osteoarthritis: A Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis.
Health coaching aims to empower people to reach their goals and is increasingly used in health care settings. Whether health coaching improves pain and disability for people with hip or knee osteoarthritis (OA) or low back pain (LBP) is unknown. ⋯ Meta-analyses provide evidence that health coaching reduces both disability and pain in people with chronic LBP and reduces disability in people with knee OA, though the clinical significance is unknown. There is currently no evidence supporting or refuting the use of health coaching for hip OA.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Effects of HD-tDCS targeting the anterior cingulate cortex on the pain thresholds: A Randomized Controlled Trial.
The majority of existing clinical studies used active transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over superficial areas of the pain neuromatrix to regulate pain, with conflicting results. Few studies have investigated the effect of tDCS on pain thresholds by focusing on targets in deep parts of the pain neuromatrix. ⋯ The present study has found that cathodal HD-tDCS targeting the ACC provided a strong antinociceptive effect (increase in pain threshold), demonstrating a positive biological effect of HD-tDCS.