The journal of pain : official journal of the American Pain Society
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Tramadol effects on brain activity during cognitive and emotional empathy for pain: a randomized controlled study.
Pain is perceived not only by personal experience but also vicariously. Pain empathy is the ability to share and understand other's intentions and emotions in their painful conditions, which can be divided into cognitive and emotional empathy. It remains unclear how centrally acting analgesics would modulate brain activity related to pain empathy and which component of pain empathy would be altered by analgesics. ⋯ Supramarginal gyrus activation correlated negatively with the thermal pain threshold. In experiment 2, we found that tramadol decreased activation in angular gyrus in cognitive empathy for pain compared with placebo but did not change brain activity in emotional empathy for pain. PERSPECTIVE: Centrally acting analgesics such as tramadol may have not only analgesic effects on self-experienced pain but also on the complex neural processing of pain empathy.
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Previous studies have investigated the association of gender roles with pain outcomes in healthy individuals. However, little is known about this association in those with musculoskeletal (MSK) disorders. Therefore, this mixed-methods systematic review aimed to investigate the association of sociocultural gender roles on pain outcomes in adults with MSK disorders. ⋯ There is a need for pain management to evolve to acknowledge the individual pain experience through exploration of an individual's gender identity and roles. PERSPECTIVE: This article demonstrates that gender roles have a multidimensional influence on the pain experience in those with MSK disorders. These findings support the development of gender-sensitive, patient-centered approaches to pain management, acknowledging each individual's important roles and identities.
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Chronic pain is prevalent among individuals with higher body weight and associated with greater impairment. As a result, weight loss is a common recommendation for pain management among those with higher body weight. Body weight is an appealing target because it is modifiable and evidence-based treatments to produce weight loss are well-established. ⋯ PERSPECTIVE: This focus article critically considers the role of weight loss in management of chronic pain among individuals of higher body. Using knee osteoarthritis as an exemplar, the evidence and clinical uptake of weight loss for pain management is reviewed. Limitations are considered to guide future research and clinical care.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Comparable conditioned pain modulation and painful-exercise-induced hypoalgesia in healthy young adults: A randomised crossover trial.
Conditioned pain modulation and exercise-induced hypoalgesia reflect inhibitory pain controls emanating from the brain. The aim of this study was to compare the extent of pain inhibition from exercise-induced hypoalgesia (isometric wall squat), conditioned pain modulation (cold-water immersion), and their combination (wall squat followed by cold water in fixed order) in healthy pain-free adults. Sixty-one participants (median age 21 years) completed 3 sessions (wall-squat, cold-water, and combined) in random order. ⋯ Pressure pain in body regions remote from the exercised or conditioned sites may be weakly modulated. PERSPECTIVE: The current findings suggest that pain-inhibitory effects induced by painful wall squat and by cold-water immersion may overlap. The magnitude of pain inhibition in the forehead remote from the exercised thigh or the conditioned foot appears smaller, which could be examined further in future research.
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Analyses of health care data can reveal utilization of treatment options that comprise a multidisciplinary approach to chronic pain management. This retrospective cohort study aimed to characterize treatments among commercially versus Medicaid-insured adults with incident episodes of chronic pain. We used MarketScan data to identify patients with diagnoses for conditions associated with chronic pain, assess procedure codes that align with broad categories of treatment options, and compare receipt of treatments by insurance type. ⋯ Disparities in the provision, patterns, and timing of treatments by insurance suggest differential access to the full range of treatment options early during the course of care and identify opportunities to align coverage and reimbursement policies with current practice guidelines. PERSPECTIVE: This analysis of medical claims for patients with incident chronic pain episodes found disparities in the provision, patterns, and timing of treatments by insurance type. These results suggest differential access to evidence-based treatment options early during care and identify opportunities to align coverage and reimbursement policies with current practice guidelines.