The journal of pain : official journal of the American Pain Society
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Prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) are relatively new but potentially useful tools to enhance prudent prescribing of controlled substances. However, little is known about the types of clinicians who make the most use of PDMPs, how these programs are incorporated into clinicians' work flow, or how clinicians and patients respond to the information. We therefore surveyed a random sample of Oregon providers, with 1,065 respondents. Clinicians in emergency medicine, primary care, and pain and addiction specialties were the largest number of registrants, but many frequent prescribers of controlled substances were not registered to use the PDMP. Among users, 95% reported accessing the PDMP when they suspected a patient of abuse or diversion, but fewer than half would check it for every new patient or every time they prescribe a controlled drug. Nearly all PDMP users reported that they discuss worrisome PDMP data with patients; 54% reported making mental health or substance abuse referrals, and 36% reported sometimes discharging patients from the practice. Clinicians reported frequent patient denial or anger and only occasional requests for help with drug dependence. More research is needed to optimize how clinicians use PDMPs across settings and how clinicians and patients respond to the data. ⋯ This study examined differences between PDMP users and nonusers and how clinicians in various specialties use PDMPs in practice. A better understanding of effective PDMP use will facilitate access to treatment for patients with pain while curbing the prescription drug epidemic and may ultimately reduce abuse, misuse, and overdose death.
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Repeated exposure to noxious stimuli changes their painfulness, due to multiple adaptive processes in the peripheral and central nervous systems. Somewhat paradoxically, repeated stimulation can produce an increase (sensitization) or a decrease (habituation) in pain. Adaptation processes may also be body-site-specific or operate across body sites, and considering this distinction may help explain the conditions under which habituation versus sensitization occurs. To dissociate the effects of site-specific and site-nonspecific adaptation processes, we examined reported pain in 100 participants during counterbalanced sequences of noxious thermal stimulation on multiple skin sites. Analysis of pain ratings revealed 2 opposing sequential effects: repeated stimulations of the same skin site produced temperature-dependent habituation, whereas repeated stimulations across different sites produced sensitization. Stimulation trials were separated by ∼20 seconds, and sensitization was unrelated to the distance between successively stimulated sites, suggesting that neither temporal nor spatial summation occurred. To explain these effects, we propose a dynamic model with 2 adaptation processes, one site-specific and the other site-nonspecific. The model explains 93% of the variance in the group-mean pain ratings after controlling for current stimulation temperature, with its estimated parameters showing evidence for habituation for the site-specific process and sensitization for the site-nonspecific process. The 2 pain adaptation processes revealed in this study, and the ability to disentangle them, may hold keys to understanding multiple pain-regulatory mechanisms and their disturbance in chronic pain syndromes. ⋯ This article presents novel evidence for simultaneous site-specific habituation and site-nonspecific sensitization in thermal pain, which can be disentangled (and the direction and strength of each process estimated) by a dynamic model. The dissociation of site-specific and site-nonspecific adaptation processes may hold keys to understanding multiple pain-regulatory mechanisms in both healthy and patient populations.
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Pain is among the most common symptoms of cancer. Because cancer can occur at any age, it is imperative that pain assessment tools are valid for use across the adult lifespan. The Short-Form McGill Pain Questionnaire-2 (SF-MPQ-2) is a valid and reliable tool for the assessment of the multidimensional qualities of pain in people with chronic nonmalignant pain, but its psychometric properties in people with cancer pain and in older versus younger people require investigation. This study evaluated age differences in the validity, reliability, and use of the SF-MPQ-2 in 244 people with advanced cancer and pain. We confirmed the previously reported 4-factor solution in older (≥ 60 years) and younger (<60 years) patients. Internal consistency reliability and convergent validity were similar across age groups, although the SF-MPQ-2 sensory subscales were correlated with mental health quality of life in older, but not younger, patients. Older and younger patients selected the same words with the same intensity to describe their pain. The most commonly selected words in both age groups were aching, tiring-exhausting, sharp, and dull. These results demonstrate that the SF-MPQ-2 is appropriate for use across the adult lifespan in people with cancer pain. ⋯ This study demonstrated that the SF-MPQ-2 is valid for use in older and younger people with advanced cancer and pain. This measure could improve cancer pain assessment across the adult lifespan, which may lead to improved pain management.
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Mindfulness, as both a process and a practice, has received substantial research attention across a range of health conditions, including chronic pain. Previously proposed mechanisms underlying the potential health-related benefits of mindfulness and mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) are based on a strong theoretical background. However, to date, an empirically grounded, integrated theoretical model of the mechanisms of MBIs within the context of chronic pain has yet to be proposed. This is a surprising gap in the literature given the exponential growth of studies reporting on the benefits of MBIs for heterogeneous chronic pain conditions. Moreover, given the importance of determining how, and for whom, psychological interventions for pain management are effective, it is imperative that this gap in the literature be addressed. The overarching aim of the current theoretical paper was to propose an initial integrated, theoretically driven, and empirically based model of the mechanisms of MBIs for chronic pain management. Theoretical and research implications of the model are discussed. The theoretical considerations proposed herein can be used to help organize and guide future research that will identify the mechanisms underlying the benefits of mindfulness-based treatments, and perhaps psychosocial treatments more broadly, for chronic pain management. ⋯ This focus article presents an initial framework for an empirically based, theoretical model of the mechanisms of MBIs for chronic pain management. Implications of the framework for refining theory and for future research are addressed.
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Endothelin-1 (ET-1) acts on endothelial cells to enhance mechanical stimulation-induced release of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which in turn can act on sensory neurons innervating blood vessels to contribute to vascular pain, a phenomenon we have referred to as stimulus-dependent hyperalgesia (SDH). In the present study, we evaluated the role of the major classes of ATP release mechanisms to SDH: vesicular exocytosis, plasma membrane-associated ATP synthase, ATP-binding cassette transporters, and ion channels. Inhibitors of vesicular exocytosis (ie, monensin, brefeldin A, and bafilomycin), plasma membrane-associated ATPase (ie, oligomycin and pigment epithelium-derived factor peptide 34-mer), and connexin ion channels (carbenoxolone and flufenamic acid) but not ATP-binding cassette transporter (ie, dipyridamole, nicardipine, or CFTRinh-172) attenuated SDH. This study reports a role of ATP in SDH and suggests novel targets for the treatment of vascular pain syndromes. ⋯ ET-1 acts on endothelial cells to produce mechanical stimulation-induced hyperalgesia. Inhibitors of 3 different ATP release mechanisms attenuated this SDH. This study provides support for a role of ATP in SDH and suggests novel targets for the treatment of vascular pain syndromes.