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Low body mass index (BMI) is suspected of being associated with low transdermal fentanyl (TDF) blood levels and worse pain relief. Clinical pain data to support this claim are lacking.
Learn More >Various academic factors are known to influence pain and somatic symptoms in adolescents, but the role of academic goal orientation, school motivational climate, and school engagement are unknown. This study examined how these understudied academic factors are associated with adolescent pain and somatic symptoms and whether gender moderates the relations.
Learn More >CIPN is a common, debilitating, and dose-limiting side effect of chemotherapy. Here, we describe characteristics of patients with CIPN using both patient-reported outcomes (PRO) and quantitative sensory testing (QST).
Learn More >Migraine headache is an episodic phenomenon, and patients with episodic migraine have ictal (headache), peri-ictal (premonitory, aura, and postdrome), and interictal (asymptomatic) phases. We aimed to find the functional characteristics of migraine brain regardless of headache phase using dynamic functional connectivity analysis. We prospectively recruited 50 patients with migraine and 50 age- and sex-matched controls. All subjects underwent a resting-state functional MRI. Significant networks were defined in a data-driven fashion from the interictal (>48 hours apart from headache phases) patients and matched controls (interictal dataset) and tested to ictal or peri-ictal patients and controls (ictal/peri-ictal dataset). Both static and dynamic analyses were used for the between-group comparison. A false discovery rate correction was performed. As a result, the static analysis did not reveal a network which was significant in both interictal and ictal/peri-ictal datasets. Dynamic analysis revealed significant between-group differences in seven brain networks in the interictal dataset, among which a frontoparietal network (controls > patients, p=0.0467), two brainstem networks (patients > controls, p=0.0467 and <0.001), and a cerebellar network (controls > patients, p=0.0408 and <0.001 in two states) remained significant in the ictal/peri-ictal dataset. Using these networks, migraine was classified with a sensitivity of 0.70 and specificity of 0.76 in the ictal/peri-ictal dataset. In conclusion, the dynamic connectivity analysis revealed more functional networks related to migraine than the conventional static analysis, suggesting a substantial temporal fluctuation in functional characteristics. Our data also revealed migraine-related networks which show significant difference regardless of headache phases between patients and controls.
Learn More >Arthritis is often characterized by inflammation and bone destruction. Here we studied the contribution of inflammation and bone destruction to pain.
Learn More >Pain is a major symptom of bone metastases from advanced cancer and represents a clinical challenge to treat effectively. Basic neurobiology in preclinical animal models implicates enhanced sensory processing in the central nervous system, acting through -methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) glutamate receptors, as an important mechanism underpinning persistent pain. The non-receptor tyrosine kinase Src is thought to act as a hub for regulating NMDA receptor activity and the orally available Src inhibitor saracatinib has shown promise as a potential analgesic in recent animal studies. Here we tested the efficacy of saracatinib as a novel analgesic in an exploratory phase II randomized controlled trial on cancer patients with painful bone metastases. Twelve patients completed the study, with 6 receiving saracatinib 125 mg/day for 28 days and 6 receiving placebo. Pharmacokinetic measurements confirmed appropriate plasma levels of drug in the saracatinib-treated group and Src inhibition was achieved clinically by a significant reduction in the bone resorption biomarker serum cross-linked C-terminal telopeptide of type I collagen. Differences between the saracatinib and placebo groups self-reported pain scores, measured using the short form of the Brief Pain Inventory, were not clinically significant after 4 weeks of treatment. There was also no change in consumption of maintenance analgesia in the saracatinib-treated group and no improvement in Quality-of-Life scores. The data were insufficient to demonstrate saracatinib has efficacy as analgesic, although it may have a role as an anti-bone resorptive agent.
Learn More >The OsteoArthritis and Therapy for Sleep (OATS) study is a population-based randomized controlled trial of cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBTI) with four innovative methodological aims. These are to: (1) Enroll representative participants across Washington state, including those from medically underserved communities; (2) Enroll persons with persistent insomnia and chronic osteoarthritis (OA) pain; (3) Test a scalable CBT-I intervention; and (4) Evaluate patient-reported outcomes (insomnia, pain severity, fatigue, depression) and cost-effectiveness over one year. This paper describes progress towards achieving these aims. The target population was persons age 60+ who had received OA care within the Kaiser Permanente Washington (KPW) health care system. We employed a two-phase screening via mail survey and telephone follow-up, with a 3-week interval between screens to exclude persons with spontaneous improvement in sleep or pain symptoms. Participants were randomized to a 6-session telephone-delivered CBT-I intervention or a 6-session telephone education only control condition (EOC). Blinded outcome assessments (completed online or on mailed paper forms) included primary and secondary sleep and pain outcome measures and quality of life measures. We obtained healthcare utilization from administrative claims data. Intent to treat analyses, including all participants randomized when they scheduled the first telephone session, will be conducted to compare CBT-I and EOC outcomes. The trial will be the largest experimental evaluation of telephone CBT-I to date, and the first to evaluate its cost-effectiveness.
Learn More >Sensitive skin is defined by the occurrence of unpleasant sensations such as tingling, burning, tautness, itching or pain. Mechanisms explaining sensitive skin are controversial, and many hypotheses have been proposed. Because sensitive skin is primarily characterized by a wide variety of neuropathic-like symptoms, it is highly likely that neurosensory dysfunction in the skin represents one of the pathological mechanisms of sensitive skin. This hypothesis does not exclude other explanations like role of keratinocyte, transient receptor potential channels, vasculature or environmental factors. Nevertheless, the role of the nervous system in the development of sensitive skin is crucial, and growing evidence supports this hypothesis. Pain and pruritus described by patients with sensitive skin corresponds to neuropathic component, and its assessment shows an increase of neuropathic measures (DN-4, Douleur Neuropathique-4) compared to control. These sensations are similar to the sensations observed in small-fiber neuropathy (SFN), which is a group of disorders that affect thin nerve fibers. One study on the pathophysiology of sensitive skin demonstrated that intraepidermal nerve fiber density, especially of peptidergic C-fibers, was lower in the sensitive skin group. A recent study showed a modification in heat-pain detection threshold in patients with sensitive skin. All these results indicate that C-fiber damage can help explain sensitive skin. Consequently, the role of the nervous system is increasingly obvious. Nevertheless, keratinocytes and other epidermal cells closely participate in sensory transduction. Therefore, the results of neurophysiological studies should be interpreted in the light of this information that the whole epidermis represents a huge polymodal nociceptor. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
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