Pain practice : the official journal of World Institute of Pain
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This study investigated the prevalence, etiology, assessment, treatment of pain in patients with cancer as well as their quality of life (QOL). ⋯ This study revealed the prevalence of neuropathic cancer pain in Chinese patients with cancer. Malignant neuropathic pain significantly impaired the patients' QOL. Insufficient assessment and inadequate analgesia still exist. These require more awareness and attention from both doctors and patients.
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Postmastectomy pain syndrome is common after surgical treatment for breast cancer and may be challenging to manage. Currently, there are a wide variety of approaches to treat this type of pain, including medications, physical therapy, and interventional procedures. ⋯ We present a case series of 8 patients who were successfully treated with serratus plane block for pain after treatment for breast cancer. We feel that this particular application for the serratus plane block deserves further investigation, as it is relatively easy to perform and has good clinical utility for this type of pain.
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Vagally mediated heart rate variability (vmHRV) is widely respected as a psychophysiological measure of emotion regulation capacity and serves as a readily available index of executive brain areas that exert an inhibitory influence on subcortical structures. Pain catastrophizing (PC) is conceptualized as the tendency to misinterpret and exaggerate pain-related situations that may be threatening. Chronic pain patients show lower vmHRV and higher PC. ⋯ Patients with WAD showed lower vmHRV, indexed by high-frequency HRV (effect size, Cohen's d = 0.442), and greater PC (d = 0.815). Zero-order and partial correlations controlling for age and sex revealed that vmHRV and PC are inversely related. The results provide evidence for a psychophysiological mechanism underlying PC, in particular in chronic pain patients.
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The purpose of this study was to investigate cross-sectional associations of pain self-efficacy and fear of movement with pain intensity and disability in Italian patients with chronic low back pain (CLBP). One hundred and three adult outpatients with nonspecific CLBP were included in the study. Socio-demographic and clinical characteristics were assessed, together with Italian versions of self-reported questionnaires to measure the four constructs of interest. ⋯ Pain self-efficacy and fear of movement are very similarly associated with main outcomes in this sample of Italian patients with CLBP. The results of this study suggest that both psychosocial constructs should be considered in clinical management. Future studies should investigate whether these findings can be replicated in other samples, in longitudinal designs and if other variables not measured in this study confound the associations.
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To estimate all-cause healthcare resource utilization and costs among chronic pain patients within an integrated healthcare delivery system in the United States. ⋯ Chronic pain conditions impose a substantial burden on the healthcare system, with musculoskeletal conditions associated with the highest overall costs. Costs appeared to be primarily related to use of outpatient services. This type of research supports integrated delivery systems as a source for assessing opportunities to improve patient outcomes and lower the costs for chronic pain patients.