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To evaluate the content validity and psychometric properties of the Activity Impairment in Migraine Diary (AIM-D).
Learn More >Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is an orphan disease occurring as a complication after trauma. Due to its acute onset and the typical clinical presentation of the inflammatory and autonomous signs, it is an eye-catching chronic pain disease affecting also young and working people. In social media and the internet, high pain severity and unfavorable prognosis is often empathized.
Learn More >Veterans with chronic pain may be vulnerable during the COVID-19 pandemic. We qualitatively explored the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on a sample of Veterans receiving brief counseling focused on pain management in an ongoing clinical trial and discuss how the pandemic affected the process of motivating Veterans with chronic pain to engage in interdisciplinary multimodal pain treatment at the Department of Veteran Affairs.
Learn More >Sickle cell disease (SCD) is the most common inherited blood disorder in both Jamaica and the United States and is characterized by poor quality of life and debilitating complications, with the hallmark symptom being pain caused by acute and chronic conditions. Individuals with SCD often experience stigma due to their disease status, opioid use, and race. This study sought to understand the influence of perceived stigma and demographic/clinical characteristics on quality of life in adults with SCD in Jamaica (n = 50) and the United States (n = 50). Participants completed interviewer-administered surveys including demographic/clinical characteristics; the Measure of Sickle Cell Stigma (MoSCS); and the Adult Sickle Cell Quality of Life Measurement System (ASCQ-Me). A set of general linear models for each country was built to examine the influence of explanatory variables on the quality of life outcomes. Overall, stigma scores were low for both countries, with the exception of the MoSCS disclosure concerns and expected discrimination subscales, where scores averaged medium and high, respectively. In both countries, being employed was associated with better quality of life; and reports of stigma (internalized stigma and expected discrimination) was associated with worse quality of life. These findings have several implications for healthcare providers caring for individuals with SCD, policy makers, and researchers. Specifically, findings can be used to advocate for improved access to mental health care for individuals with SCD and inform stigma reduction intervention approaches in SCD.
Learn More >Increasing pressures exist to reduce or discontinue opioid use among patients currently on long-term opioid therapy (LTOT). It is essential to understand the potential effects of opioid reduction.
Learn More >In migraineurs, coloured lenses were found to reduce the visual stress caused by an aversive pattern known to trigger migraines by 70%, but do such patterns also produce a low-level anxiety/fear response? Is this response lessened by colour? We sought to investigate this in a study comprising a broad screening component followed by a dot-probe experiment to elicit attentional biases (AB) to aversive patterns. Undergraduate psychology students completed headache and visual discomfort (VD) questionnaires ( = 358), thereby forming a subject pool from which 13 migraineurs with high visual discomfort and 13 no-headache controls with low visual discomfort, matched on age and sex, completed a dot-probe experiment. Paired stimuli were presented for 500 ms: aversive achromatic 3 cpd square wave gratings vs control, scrambled patterns. These conditions were repeated using the colour that was most comfortable for each participant. VD was greater in the more severe headache groups. On all measures, the migraineurs were more anxious than the controls, and a positive relationship was found between VD and trait anxiety. The 3 cpd gratings elicited an aversive AB in the migraine group which was somewhat reduced by the use of colour, and this was not seen in the controls. The results suggest a new role for colour in reducing visual stress via anxiety/fear reduction.
Learn More >Sleep disturbance is prevalent among patients with chronic low back pain (CLBP). This systematic review aimed to summarize the evidence regarding the: (1) temporal relations between changes in sleep quality/quantity and the corresponding changes in pain and/or disability; and (2) role of baseline sleep quality/quantity in predicting future pain and/or disability in patients with CLBP.
Learn More >Chronic Whiplash Associated Disorders (CWAD) are characterized by long-lasting symptoms of neck pain occurring after an acceleration-deceleration injury. Central sensitization (CS) has been suggested as the possible underlying mechanism for these symptoms, and is characterized by changes in the central nervous system. Besides CS, psychological factors are believed to play an important role in the experience of (chronic) pain.
Learn More >This paper will emphasize the necessity to improve education about pain, its close relationship with suicide, and effective suicide screening as well as management strategies for medical providers.
Learn More >To explore pain-specific, general health-related quality of life (HRQoL), and safety outcomes of chronic pain patients prescribed cannabis-based medicinal products (CBMPs).
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