Pain practice : the official journal of World Institute of Pain
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Subconscious Manipulation of Pain Expectation Can Modulate Cortical Nociceptive Processing.
To determine whether manipulation of the expectation of pain inhibition can enhance the efficacy of conditioned pain modulation in healthy participants ⋯ As perceived pain inhibition was enhanced but flexion reflex size unchanged following the intervention, we suggest that the intervention gave rise to an inhibition of ascending nociceptive information at a supraspinal level resulting in reduced pain perception without influencing spinal level processing of nociceptive input. The finding that conditioned pain modulation can be enhanced is of relevance to clinical pain populations who commonly show impaired inhibition.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Endogenous Pain Modulation in Response to Exercise in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis, Patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Comorbid Fibromyalgia, and Healthy Controls: A Double-Blind Randomized Controlled Trial.
Temporal summation (TS) of pain, conditioned pain modulation (CPM), and exercise-induced analgesia (EIA) are often investigated in chronic pain populations as an indicator for enhanced pain facilitation and impaired endogenous pain inhibition, respectively, but interactions are not yet clear both in healthy controls and in chronic pain patients. Therefore, the present double-blind randomized placebo-controlled study evaluates pains cores, TS, and CPM in response to exercise in healthy controls, patients with chronic fatigue syndrome and comorbid fibromyalgia (CFS/FM), and patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), both under placebo and paracetamol condition. ⋯ This study evaluates pain scores, TS, and CPM in response to submaximal exercise in 2 different chronic pain populations and healthy controls. In patients with RA, exercise had positive effects on TS, suggesting normal EIA. In patients with CFS/FM, these positive effects were only observed after paracetamol and results were inconsistent.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
How Sharp is a "Sharp Scratch"? A Mixed Methods Study of Verbal Warnings Issued Before Venipuncture.
Health care providers frequently issue a verbal warning before venipuncture. Communications that induce negative expectations in patients can lead to the "nocebo" response, defined as experiencing greater pain. But is this also true for "sharp scratch"? ⋯ Most health care providers use the verbal warning "sharp scratch" before venipuncture. Most patients find this acceptable and prefer it to no warning. An exception may be elderly patients, who may prefer to be distracted by conversation. "Sharp scratch" makes no difference to the pain experienced compared with a verbal cue.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
Pregabalin Does Not Affect Sperm Production in Healthy Volunteers: A Randomized, Double-blind, Placebo-controlled, Noninferiority Study.
The primary objective of this study was to compare the effects of pregabalin and placebo on sperm concentration in healthy male subjects. Changes in follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), testosterone, sperm motility, semen volume, and sperm morphology were also examined. ⋯ One hundred and nine subjects received placebo and 111 subjects received pregabalin. The difference between placebo and pregabalin with respect to the percentage of subjects with a ≥ 50% reduction from baseline in sperm concentration at End of Study was 6% (95% CI: -2.29 to 14.3%). Noninferiority of pregabalin compared to placebo was declared as the upper bound of the 95% CI was less than the prespecified noninferiority margin of 20%. There were no significant differences between placebo and pregabalin groups with respect to their effects on FSH, testosterone, or sperm motility. Changes in semen volume and sperm morphology were numerically similar in both treatment groups. Adverse events were consistent with the known safety profile of pregabalin. Treatment with 600 mg/day pregabalin for 12 weeks does not adversely affect spermatogenesis or serum levels of FSH and testosterone in healthy males.