The journal of pain : official journal of the American Pain Society
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Opioid-induced hyperalgesia (OIH) is a problem associated with prolonged use of opioids in chronic pain management, and its effective treatment has been hampered by lack of mechanistic evidence. Oligodendrocytes have recently been linked with several pain-related diseases; however, little is known its role in OIH. The prelimbic medial prefrontal cortex (PL-mPFC) has emerged as a significant center of pain regulation, and is rich in oligodendrocytes. ⋯ We suggest that OIH may be primed in part via oligodendrocyte apoptosis in the PL-mPFC. PERSPECTIVE: In this study we showed that oligodendrocyte apoptosis in the PL-mPFC is a key trigger for fentanyl-induced hyperalgesia. Targeting oligodendrocyte apoptosis in the PL-mPFC may prevented hyperalgesia priming induced by fentanyl.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Effectiveness of a brief hypnotic induction in third molar extraction: A randomized controlled trial (HypMol).
Third molar extraction is a painful treatment for patients, and thus, it can be used to investigate the effects of analgesics on pain. Hypnosis can help to reduce pain and to decrease the intake of postoperative systemic analgesics. In this study, the effectiveness of a brief hypnotic induction for patients undergoing third molar extractions was investigated. ⋯ PERSPECTIVE: Hypnosis is used as a treatment to reduce pain in general and dental settings. In this study, additional a brief hypnotic induction with reduced preoperative local anesthetic use did not generally reduce posttreatment pain after third molar extraction more than regular local anesthetics. The expectation of the patients about the effectiveness of hypnosis affected the effectiveness of the brief hypnotic induction so that patients with high expectations had a larger benefit from a brief hypnotic induction than patients with low expectations.
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Observational Study
Trajectories, risk factors, and impact of persistent pain after major musculoskeletal surgery in adolescents: a replication study.
Studies have identified high rates of chronic postsurgical pain in adolescents. Characterizing patterns of pain in the transition from acute to chronic following major surgery may pinpoint critical periods of recovery. This observational study modelled pain trajectories over 1-year following surgery to attempt replication of prior work and evaluate baseline psychosocial factors and 12-month health outcomes. ⋯ Clinical detection of those with increasing pain and early intervention may interrupt persistence of pain. PERSPECTIVE: This article replicates a prior study identifying distinct post-surgical pain trajectories, Declining Pain and High and Persistent Pain. The High and Persistent pain trajectory is associated with pre-surgery pain, pre-surgery sleep quality, and lower quality of life (total, physical, and psychosocial health as well as fatigue) at 12-month follow-up.
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Native Americans (NAs) have higher pain rates than the general U. S. population. It has been found that increased central sensitization and reduced pain inhibition are pronociceptive processes that increase pain risk; yet, little attention has focused on the influence of psychosocial factors. ⋯ This indicates experienced discrimination may promote a pain risk phenotype in NAs that involves spinal sensitization resulting from impaired inhibition of spinal nociception without sensitization of pain experience. PERSPECTIVE: This study found that discrimination was associated with spinal sensitization and impaired descending inhibition of spinal nociception. These findings bolster our understanding of how social stressors experienced disproportionately by minoritized groups can contribute to pain outcomes.
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People with chronic pain engage in various strategies, such as pain catastrophizing and pain acceptance, to regulate the difficult emotional aspects of living with pain. Engagement in these strategies is known to influence pain severity and pain interference. However, less research has examined the extent to which general emotion regulation, the ability to identify emotions and engage in strategies to alter emotions, relates to pain-related outcomes. ⋯ These findings highlight the value of considering the role of general emotion regulation (particularly identifying and describing emotions), in addition to pain-specific experiences, in understanding risk for poor pain-related outcomes. PERSPECTIVE: In addition to pain catastrophizing and pain acceptance, difficulties regulating emotions in general (particularly elevated alexithymia) relates to pain outcomes three months later. These findings shed light on risk for poor pain outcomes and point to general emotion regulation as a potentially important target of chronic pain intervention.