The journal of pain : official journal of the American Pain Society
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The dorsal spinal cord is crucial for the transmission and modulation of multiple somatosensory modalities, such as itch, pain, and touch. Despite being essential for the well-being and survival of an individual, itch and pain, in their chronic forms, have increasingly been recognized as clinical problems. Although considerable progress has been made in our understanding of the neurochemical processing of nociceptive and chemical itch sensations, the neural substrate that is crucial for mechanical itch processing is still unclear. ⋯ PERSPECTIVE: Excitatory Nmur2+ neurons in the superficial dorsal spinal cord are essential for mechanical but not chemical itch information processing. These spinal Nmur2+ neurons represent a potential cellular target for future therapeutic interventions against chronic itch. Spinal and supraspinal Nmur2+ neurons may play different roles in pain signal processing.
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Exercise and diet are beneficial for pain, yet many patients do not receive such recommendations from providers. This may be due to biases related to gender, race, and weight. We recruited medical students (N = 90) to view videos of women with chronic back pain performing a functional task; patients varied by weight (overweight/obese) and race (Black/White). ⋯ Future studies are needed to identify the reasons underlying these systematic differences, including the stereotypes and attitudes that may be driving these effects. PERSPECTIVE: This article presents results on how patient weight and race impact providers' exercise and diet recommendations for women with chronic back pain. Provider recommendations for these modalities may be systematically biased in a way that impedes care and impacts patient functioning.
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Pain is an inherently negative perceptual and affective experience that acts as a warning system to protect the body from injury and illness. Pain unfolds over time and is influenced by myriad factors, making it highly dynamic. Despite this, statistical measures often treat any intraindividual variability in pain ratings as noise or error. ⋯ This suggests patients with chronic pain experience pain stimuli differently over time, and pain catastrophizing may account for this differential experience. PERSPECTIVE: The present study demonstrates (using multiple variability metrics) that chronic pain patients show more variability when rating experimental pain stimuli, and that pain catastrophizing helps explain this differential experience. These results provide preliminary evidence that short-term pain variability could have utility as a clinical marker in pain assessment and treatment.
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Postamputation pain is currently managed unsatisfactorily with neuron-targeted pharmacological and interventional therapies. Non-neuronal pain mechanisms have emerged as crucial factors in the development and persistence of postamputation pain. Consequently, these mechanisms offer exciting prospects as innovative therapeutic targets. ⋯ Our findings underscore the mechanistic relevance of MSCs and the translational therapeutic potential of IMT504 to engage non-neuronal cells for the prevention of postamputation pain. PERSPECTIVE: The present study suggests that IMT504-dependent recruitment of endogenous MSCs within severely injured nerves may prevent post-amputation pain by modifying the inflammatory scenario at relevant sites in the pain pathway. Reinforcing data in rat and human tissues supports the potential therapeutic value of IMT504 in patients suffering postamputation pain.
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Migraine is a complex and highly incapacitating neurological disorder that affects around 15% of the general population with greater incidence in women, often at the most productive age of life. Migraine physiopathology is still not fully understood, but it involves multiple mediators and events in the trigeminovascular system and the central nervous system. The identification of calcitonin gene-related peptide as a key mediator in migraine physiopathology has led to the development of effective and highly selective antimigraine therapies. ⋯ PERSPECTIVE: Calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) represents a major migraine mediator, but few studies have investigated the relationship between CGRP and VGCCs. CGRP release is calcium channel-dependent and VGGCs are key players in familial migraine. Further studies are needed to determine whether VGCCs are suitable molecular targets for treating migraine.