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The subjective nature of pain and the lack of a gold standard for objective measurement hinders effective assessment, diagnosis, and treatment. Some individuals, such as professional dancers, are better in assessing and reporting bodily sensations. This observational study aimed to assess whether dancers report their pain less variably, than other people do. After consenting, subjects completed the Focused Analgesia Selection Task (FAST), which assesses subjects' variability of pain reports. FAST outcomes, ICC and R reflect the magnitude of variability of pain reports observed. In addition, subjects underwent a taste task, which similarly assesses variability of tastes (salty and sweet) intensity reports and completed the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA) questionnaire. Thirty-three professional dancers and thirty-three healthy aged-matched controls were recruited. The dancers exhibited less variability of pain reports then controls (P=0.013), but not in case of tastes-reports. Years of practice was positively correlated with pain reporting variability (r=0.447, P=0.009, and r=0.380, P=0.029; for FAST ICC and R, respectively). MAIA sub-scores correlated with pain reporting variability: R and ICC with emotional awareness (r=0.260, P=0.040, and r=0.274, P=0.030, respectively), and R with trusting [r=0.254, P=0.044]). Perspective The difference between dancers and controls in the magnitude of variability of pain reports is probably due to the dancers' extensive training, which focuses on attention to body signals. Our results suggest that training can improve subjective pain reports, which are essential for quality clinical care.
Learn More >To investigate the role of calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) in persistent post-traumatic headache (PTH) attributed to mild traumatic brain injury (TBI).
Learn More >Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are commonly prescribed for knee osteoarthritis. However, they are associated with uncertain long-term clinical benefit and significant toxic effects.
Learn More >Post-traumatic trigeminal neuropathy (PTN) is a disturbance of function or pathological change of the trigeminal nerve branches following trauma and has an important impact on patient's quality of life (QoL).
Learn More >At the conception of this study (January 2019), a literature search by the authors found no evidence-based or consensus perioperative guidelines for patients consuming cannabis products, or for those patients in whom a cannabinoid medication could be considered for perioperative treatment. Currently, there is a large global population that consumes cannabis. The availability of cannabis has also increased this decade with greater legal access to cannabis products in some countries such as USA, Canada, Uruguay, Israel, Australia and Germany. There are recognised possible therapeutic benefits for the use of cannabis in patients with chronic pain, chronic neuropathic pain and chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting. There are also potential side effects from cannabis use such as psychosis, cannabis hyperemesis syndrome, misuse disorder and cannabis withdrawal syndrome. There is evidence that cannabis may also affect factors in the perioperative period such as monitoring, quality of analgesia, sleep and opioid consumption. Given the large population of persons using cannabis, the heterogeneity of cannabis products and the paucity (and heterogeneity) of perioperative literature surrounding it, perioperative guidelines for cannabis consuming patients are both lacking and necessary. In this paper, we present the design for a modified Delphi technique that has been started with the intent of deriving cannabis perioperative guidelines from the available medical literature and the consensus of multidisciplinary experts.
Learn More >We investigated intracerebral fiber bundles using a tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) analysis of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data to verify microstructural integrity in patients with episodic (MO) and chronic migraine (CM).
Learn More >Fibromyalgia (FM) is a chronic noncommunicable disorder characterized by a constellation of symptoms that include fatigue, depression and chronic pain. FM affects 2%-8% of the U.S. population, 2% of the global population, with 61%-90% of FM diagnoses attributed to women. Key causal factors leading to the development and severity of FM-related symptoms have not yet been identified. The purpose of this article is to report relationships among identified metabolites and levels of fatigue, depression, pain severity, and pain interference in a sample of 20 women with FM. In this secondary analysis, we conducted global metabolomic analysis and examined the data for relationships of metabolite levels with self-reported symptoms of fatigue, depression, pain severity, and pain interference. Results revealed six metabolites (6-deoxy-hexose; pantothenic acid; ergothioneine; l-carnitine; n-acetylserotonin; butyrobetaine) and their associated metabolic pathways such as carnitine synthesis, lipid oxidation, tryptophan metabolism, beta-alanine metabolism and pantothenic and Coenzyme-A biosynthesis that were either positively or inversely related to pain severity, pain interference, or both. The preliminary data presented suggest that metabolites representing energy, amino acid, or lipid classification may be associated with pain symptom severity and interference in women with FM. Future work will confirm these findings in a large, comparative cohort, targeting metabolites and metabolite pathways to better understand the relationships of metabolites and symptomology.
Learn More >Inhibitors of fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) increase the levels of endocannabinoids and have shown analgesic and anti-inflammatory activity in animal models. ASP3652 is a peripherally acting FAAH inhibitor in development for the treatment of chronic bladder and pelvic pain disorders. Here we describe the safety, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics of single and multiple oral doses of ASP3652 administered in healthy non-elderly and elderly male and female volunteers.
Learn More >Pain is the most debilitating symptom of recurrent acute pancreatitis (RAP) and chronic pancreatitis (CP) and often requires chronic opioids or total pancreatectomy with islet autotransplantation to manage. Pain is a complex experience that can be exacerbated by depression and vice versa. Our aim was to test the hypothesis that depression-associated genes are associated with a constant-severe pain experience in RAP/CP patients.
Learn More >Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) is an orofacial condition defined by reoccurring, spontaneous, short-lived but excruciating stabbing pain. Pharmacological interventions constitute the first-line treatment for TN, with antiepileptic drugs commonly prescribed. People treated for TN pain with antiepileptic drugs describe cognitive and motor difficulties affecting activities of daily living, and report poorer quality of life. We undertook the first comprehensive objective evaluation of sensorimotor and cognitive performance in participants being treated for TN pain with antiepileptic drugs relative to age-matched controls.
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