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Chronic pain (1) and chronic pain that frequently limits life or work activities, referred to in this report as high-impact chronic pain (2), are among the most common reasons adults seek medical care (3) and are associated with decreased quality of life, opioid dependence, and poor mental health (1,4,5). This report examines chronic pain and high-impact chronic pain in the past 3 months among U.S. adults aged 18 and over by selected demographic characteristics and urbanization level.
Learn More >Intrathecal opioid pumps have been used in the management of severe chronic pain for more than 40 years. Numerous studies have shown significant therapeutic effects alongside tolerable side effects. In the last decades, life expectancy has increased in many countries in the world. With an aging population, the question arises whether effects equal to those in younger patients can also be achieved in elderly patients.
Learn More >Postoperative opioid use can lead to chronic use and misuse. Few studies have examined effective approaches to taper postoperative opioid use while maintaining adequate analgesia.
Learn More >This post hoc study investigated the relationship between patient response in terms of migraine headache day reduction and patient-reported outcomes of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and disability categories.
Learn More >The literature suggests patient characteristics and higher opioid doses and long-term duration are associated with problematic opioid behaviours but no one study has examined the role of all these factors simultaneously in a long-term prospective cohort study.
Learn More >OnabotulinumtoxinA (BTX) has become a mainstream treatment for chronic migraine (CM). Patients often have varied expectations for treatment success but little is known about how these initial impressions influence continuation of therapy.
Learn More >Sleep disturbances are associated with increased risk of migraine, however the extent of shared underlying biology and the direction of causal relationships between these traits is unclear. Delineating causality between sleep patterns and migraine may offer new pathophysiologic insights and inform subsequent intervention studies. Here, we used genetic approaches to test for shared genetic influences between sleep patterns and migraine, and to test whether habitual sleep patterns may be causal risk factors for migraine and vice versa.
Learn More >Cumulative evidence suggests that abnormal differentiation of T lymphocytes influences the pathogenesis of chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CP/CPPS). Thus, understanding the immune activation landscape of CP/CPPS would be helpful for improving therapeutic strategies. Here, we utilized BD™ AbSeq to digitally quantify both the protein and mRNA expression levels in single peripheral blood T cells from two CP/CPPS patients and two healthy controls. We utilized an integrated strategy based on canonical correlation analysis of 10 000+ AbSeq profiles and identified fifteen unique T-cell subpopulations. Notably, we found that the proportion of cluster 0 in the CP/CPPS group (30.35%) was significantly increased compared with the proportion in the healthy control group (9.38%); cluster 0 was defined as effector T cells based on differentially expressed genes/proteins. Flow cytometry assays confirmed that the proportions of effector T-cell subpopulations, particularly central memory T cells, T helper (Th)1, Th17 and Th22 cells, in the peripheral blood mononuclear cell populations of patients with CP/CPPS were significantly increased compared with those of healthy controls (P < 0.05), further confirming that aberration of effector T cells possibly leads to or intensifies CP/CPPS. Our results provide novel insights into the underlying mechanisms of CP/CPPS, which will be beneficial for its treatment.
Learn More >Headache is one of the most prevalent and disabling conditions. Its optimal management requires a coordinated and comprehensive response by health systems, but there is still a wide variability that compromises the quality and safety of the care process.
Learn More >In complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), sensory deficits and/or hyperalgesia often extend beyond the affected limb to encompass other sites on the ipsilateral side of the body. The aim of this study was to determine whether hyperalgesia in the ipsilateral forehead reflects disinhibition and/or sensitization of trigeminal afferent or second-order neurons on the CRPS-affected side.
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