Articles: chronic.
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Kratom is an herb indigenous to Southeast Asia with psychoactive opioid compounds, often used as a treatment for chronic pain or opiate withdrawal symptoms. It is legally and readily available via Internet sales and has been identified as an emerging drug of abuse in the United States. ⋯ At lower doses, kratom acts as a stimulant, while at higher doses, it produces analgesia and euphoria. Here, we describe the successful management of kratom overdose and withdrawal in a young man with negative toxicology screens.
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Journal of anesthesia · Apr 2018
Correction to: Attenuation of cortical activity triggering descending pain inhibition in chronic low back pain patients: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study.
Inadvertently, the Fig. 7 was published incorrectly in the original publication of the article. The correct figure should be as below.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Computerised training improves cognitive performance in chronic pain: a participant-blinded randomised active-controlled trial with remote supervision.
Chronic pain is associated with reduced efficiency of cognitive performance, and few studies have investigated methods of remediation. We trialled a computerised cognitive training protocol to determine whether it could attenuate cognitive difficulties in a chronic pain sample. Thirty-nine adults with chronic pain (mean age = 43.3, 61.5% females) were randomised to an 8-week online course (3 sessions/week from home) of game-like cognitive training exercises, or an active control involving watching documentary videos. ⋯ This study provides preliminary evidence that supervised cognitive training may be a viable method for enhancing cognitive skills in persons with chronic pain, but transfer to functional and clinical outcomes remains to be demonstrated. Active control results suggest that activities perceived as relaxing or enjoyable contribute to improved perception of well-being. Weekly contact was pivotal to successful program completion.
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Opioids are frequently used for the treatment of chronic pain, and patients taking high doses are at increased risk of complications and adverse opioid-related events. Ketamine is appealing as an opioid adjunct because of its lack of respiratory depression and potential prevention of hyperalgesia and central sensitization. We present a case in which a ketamine infusion was utilized over a 7-day period to provide rapid taper of a daily dose of 400 mg of morphine equivalents to less than one-third of that dose on discharge with unchanged pain levels and no symptoms of opioid withdrawal.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Psychological flexibility mediates the effect of an online-based acceptance and commitment therapy for chronic pain: an investigation of change processes.
One way to improve treatment effects of chronic pain is to identify and improve control over mechanisms of therapeutic change. One treatment approach that includes a specific proposed mechanism is acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) with its focus on increasing psychological flexibility (PF). The aim of the present study was to examine the role of PF as a mechanism of change in ACT. ⋯ Structural equation modelling analyses revealed that changes in PF significantly mediated pretreatment to follow-up changes in all outcomes in the intervention groups compared with waitlist (standardized estimates ranged from I0.16I to I0.69I). Global model fit yielded modest but acceptable results. Findings are consistent with the theoretical framework behind ACT and contribute to growing evidence, supporting a focus on PF to optimize treatment effects.