Articles: chronic.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Ecological momentary assessment for chronic pain in fibromyalgia using a smartphone: a randomized crossover study.
Daily diaries are a useful way of measuring fluctuations in pain-related symptoms. However, traditional diaries do not assure the gathering of data in real time, not solving the problem of retrospective assessment. Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) by means of electronic diaries helps to improve repeated assessment. However, it is important to test its feasibility in specific populations in order to reach a wider number of people who could benefit from these procedures. ⋯ The findings of this study support the use of smartphones for EMA even in specific populations with a specific pain condition, fibromyalgia and with low familiarity with technology. These methods could help clinicians and researchers to gather more accurate ratings of relevant pain-related variables even in populations with low familiarity with technology.
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Critical care medicine · Jul 2014
Multicenter StudyCharacteristics and Outcomes for Hospitalized Patients With Recurrent Clinical Deterioration and Repeat Medical Emergency Team Activation.
To describe the occurrence of recurrent clinical deterioration and repeat medical emergency team activation and assess its effect on processes and outcomes of care. ⋯ Recurrent clinical deterioration and repeat medical emergency team activation are common and associated with increased risk of subsequent ICU admission, increased length of hospital stay, and increased hospital mortality. It may be possible to identify patients at risk of recurrent clinical deterioration following medical emergency team activation and target interventions to improve patient care.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study Observational Study
Clinical Application of the COPD Assessment Test: Longitudinal Data from the CHAIN Cohort.
The COPD Assessment Test (CAT) has been proposed for assessing health status in COPD, but little is known about its longitudinal changes. The objective of this study was to evaluate 1-year CAT variability in patients with stable COPD and to relate its variations to changes in other disease markers. ⋯ One-year longitudinal data show variability in CAT scores among patients with stable COPD similar to mMRC scale score, which is the best predictor of 1-year CAT changes. Further longitudinal studies should confirm long-term CAT variability and its clinical applicability.
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Acta Anaesthesiol Scand · Jul 2014
Case ReportsRecombinant human growth hormone improves cognitive capacity in a pain patient exposed to chronic opioids.
During recent decades, the increasing use of opioids for chronic non-cancer pain has raised concerns regarding tolerance, addiction, and importantly cognitive dysfunction. Current research suggests that the somatotrophic axis could play an important role in cognitive function. Administration of growth hormone (GH) to GH-deficient humans and experimental animals has been shown to result in significant improvements in cognitive capacity. ⋯ In the right hippocampus, the N-acetylaspartate/creatine ratio (reflecting nerve cell function) was initially low but increased significantly during rhGH treatment, as did subjective cognitive, physical and emotional functioning. This case report indicates that rhGH replacement therapy could improve cognitive behaviour and well-being, as well as hippocampal metabolism and functioning in opioid-treated patients with chronic pain. The idea that GH could affect brain function and repair disabilities induced by long-term exposure to opioid analgesia is supported.
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To establish the prognostic factors and outcomes of patients with pudendal neuralgia (PN). ⋯ A mixed analgesic ladder for chronic pain showed improvement in 73% of the patients with PN. Pain restricted to the dorsal clitoris nerve and small fibers in the S2-S4 dermatome were classified as bad prognostic factors. A longer duration of pain was also correlated with a worse prognosis.