Articles: chronic.
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Chronic pain is an individually variable experience, incorporating physical, psychological and social dimensions. Chronic pain occurs in a broad spectrum of severity; therefore, a grading procedure is of crucial importance in clinical research and in epidemiologic studies. The Mainz Pain Staging System is an interview-administered, multi-dimensional measure of chronic pain severity. The system suggests grading chronic pain in terms of 4 axes: time (persistence), spreading of pain site, medication use, and health care utilization. The whole scale consist of 10 items. The resulting score is used to classify the pain problem in three stages (I, II, III). Analysing the broader validity and parametric properties of the staging system is the purpose of the present study. ⋯ Given the high prevalence of recurrent and chronic pain as well as the broadness of severity, an important issue on further research is identification of factors which influence the chronification process. For this purpose improved measures of graded classification of pain status are needed.
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Journal of anesthesia · Jan 2000
Unanswered and uncounted items of the illness behavior questionnaire count: a comparison between patients who answered all the items in the questionnaire and those who left one or more items unanswered in a pain management program.
This study aimed to understand the significance of unanswered and uncounted items on the illness behavior questionnaire (IBQ) in the setting of the Mayo Clinic pain management program for patients with chronic pain. ⋯ Unanswered and uncounted items of the IBQ seem to count toward a better understanding of patients' pain behavior.
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The practice guidelines for interventional techniques in the management of chronic pain are systematically developed statements to assist practitioner and patient decisions about appropriate health care related to chronic pain. These guidelines are professionally derived recommendations for practices in the diagnosis and treatment of chronic or persistent pain. ⋯ Included in the guidelines is a discussion of their purpose,rationale, importance, and methodology, and patient population, pathophysiologic basis, and various interventional techniques utilized in the management of chronic pain including rationale, outcomes, and cost effectiveness. They also describe the role of diagnostic blocks and therapeutic blocks with suggested algorithms for interventional techniques in the management of conservative care of chronic pain.
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Percutaneous epidural adhesiolysis, lysis of epidural adhesions, percutaneous neuroplasty, or epidural neurolysis is an interventional pain management technique which emerged during the latter part of the 1980s. It is becoming established as a common treatment modality in managing chronic low back pain that is nonresponsive to other modalities of treatment. ⋯ Percutaneous lysis of epidural scar tissue, followed by the injection of hypertonic saline neurolysis, has been shown to be cost effective in multiple studies. This review discusses various aspects of percutaneous nonendoscopic adhesiolysis and hypertonic saline neurolysis including clinical effectiveness, complications, rationale, and indications.
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Subjective well-being is an essential ingredient in the quality of life concept. The Marburg questionnaire, a seven item scale for the assessment of the trait dimension of well-being, claims to possess good psychometric properties. This is investigated in two studies with chronic pain patients. ⋯ The good psychometric quality of the questionnaire along with its brevity allows its application as part of a quality of life assessment.