Browse by Audience
For most patients with chronic low back pain (cLBP), the cause is "nonspecific," meaning there is no clear association between pain and identifiable pathology of the spine or associated tissues. Laypersons and providers alike are less inclined to help, feel less sympathy, dislike patients more, suspect deception, and attribute lower pain severity to patients whose pain does not have an objective basis in tissue pathology. Because of these stigmatizing responses from others, patients with cLBP may feel that their pain is particularly unjust and unfair. These pain-related injustice perceptions may subsequently contribute to greater cLBP severity. The purpose of this study was to examine whether perceived injustice helps explain the relationship between chronic pain stigma and movement-evoked pain severity among individuals with cLBP.
Learn More >The aims of the present study were to examine the effects of short-term music interventions among patients with fibromyalgia (FM) and to clarify the alterations in functional connectivity and persistent pain.
Learn More >Immersive Virtual Reality (VR) consists of immersion in artificial environments through the use of real-time render technologies and the latest generation devices. The users feel just as immersed as they would feel in an everyday life situation and this sense of presence appears to have therapeutic potentials. However, the VR mechanisms remain only partially known. This study is novel in that, for the first time in VR research, appropriate controls for VR contexts, immersive characteristics (i.e. control VR), and multifaceted objective and subjective outcomes were included in a within-subjects study design conducted on healthy participants.Participants received heat thermal stimulations to determine how VR can increase individual heat-pain tolerance limits (primary outcome) measured in degrees Celsius and seconds while recording concurrent autonomic responses. We also assessed changes in pain unpleasantness, mood, situational anxiety, and level of enjoyment (secondary outcomes).The VR induced a net gain in heat-pain tolerance limits that was paralleled by an increase of the parasympathetic responses. VR improved mood, situational anxiety and pain unpleasantness when participants perceived the context as enjoyable but these changes did not influence the increases in pain tolerance limits. Distraction increased pain tolerance limits but did not induce such mood and physiological changes.Immersive VR has been anecdotally applied to improve acute symptoms in contexts like battlefield, emergency and operating rooms. This study provides a mechanistic framework for VR as a low-risk, non-pharmacological intervention which regulates autonomic, affective (mood and situational anxiety) and evaluative (subjective pain and enjoyment ratings) responses associated with acute pain.
Learn More >Whereas decades of research have been devoted to psychological factors that confer vulnerability to disability and other negative outcomes in the face of chronic pain, recent studies have begun to emphasize psychological characteristics that contribute to enhanced adaptation and better clinical outcomes. Accordingly, the present study was conducted as a longitudinal assessment of the predictive utility of pain resilience and pain catastrophizing as indicators of clinical outcomes among patients receiving a standardized treatment for chronic pain.
Learn More >This basic mechanistic study examined the changes in brain activation and resting-state connectivity after 8 weeks of CBT in youth with migraine.
Learn More >The noradrenergic system is paramount for controlling pain and emotions. We aimed at understanding the descending noradrenergic modulatory mechanisms in joint inflammatory pain and its correlation with the diffuse noxious inhibitory controls (DNICs) and with the onset of anxiodepressive behaviours. In the complete Freund's adjuvant rat model of Monoarthritis, nociceptive behaviors, DNICs, and anxiodepressive-like behaviors were evaluated. Spinal alpha2-adrenergic receptors (a2-AR), dopamine beta-hydroxylase (DBH), and noradrenaline were quantified concomitantly with a2-AR pharmacologic studies. The phosphorylated extracellular signal-regulated kinases 1 and 2 (pERK1/2) were quantified in the Locus coeruleus (LC), amygdala, and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). DNIC was attenuated at 42 days of monoarthritis while present on days 7 and 28. On day 42, in contrast to day 28, noradrenaline was reduced and DBH labelling was increased. Moreover, spinal a2-AR were potentiated and no changes in a2-AR levels were observed. Additionally, at 42 days, the activation of ERKs1/2 was increased in the LC, ACC, and basolateral amygdala. This was accompanied by anxiety- and depressive-like behaviors, while at 28 days, only anxiety-like behaviors were observed. The data suggest DNIC is attenuated in prolonged chronic joint inflammatory pain, and this is accompanied by impairment of the descending noradrenergic modulation and anxiodepressive-like behaviors.
Learn More >Attentional distraction from pain has been shown to be largely ineffective for obtaining a hypoalgesic effect in patients with chronic pain when compared to a control condition. It has been hypothesized that this may be due to the non-engaging types of distraction that have been used so far. Moreover, it is suggested that the hypoalgesic effects of distraction may be attenuated by pain-related cognitions and emotions, as they may increase the attention to pain.
Learn More >The use of diet and physical activity in alleviating the burden of migraine is unclear, therefore, more scientific study on the role of positive health behaviors in migraine management is needed.
Learn More >Pain is common in Parkinson's disease (PD). In general and chronic pain populations, physical inactivity, poor sleep, and anxiety are associated with worse pain. However, little is known about these potential predictors of pain in PD.
Learn More >